25 June 2024

Power Moves and Power Failures: a first assessment of European utilities’ transition plans

The Power Moves and Power Failures: a first assessment of European utilities’ transition plans report assesses five major power utility companies from across Europe: Enel, ENGIE, Iberdrola, Statkraft, and EPH. It finds that despite a promising increase in renewable energy investments among most of the utilities evaluated, all five lack a vital component of a credible transition plan: a commitment to phase out fossil gas power in Europe by 2035. Financial institutions have a responsibility to only provide support to those utilities whose transition plans align with climate science. However, until now, they have lacked effective methods to evaluate utilities’ transition plans.

Our report provides them with a repeatable model that they can use to systematically assess the quality of utilities’ transition plans and make informed, sustainable investment decisions.The report uses a methodology developed by Beyond Fossil Fuels and Reclaim Finance, which is based on 45 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across five categories (emission reduction plan, energy planning, CAPEX, climate planning, and transparency) to uniformly assess the transition plans of power utilities and identify both their strengths and loopholes.