Iberdrola Executive Chairman Ignacio Galán speaks at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week

Iberdrola’s executive chairman, Ignacio Galán, participated in Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, the largest Middle East and North Africa summit on energy and sustainable development, which brings together political, business, and social leaders from around the world.

Galán took part in the panel “Charging Ahead: Scaling Renewables for the Next Wave of Demand,” alongside the CEO of Masdar, with which Iberdrola has a partnership that has already led to co-investments of €8 billion in offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom, as well as the CEOs of the French energy company Engie and the American company AES.

During the panel, Ignacio Galán discussed the progress of electrification in areas such as electric mobility, heat pumps, industry, and especially data centers and artificial intelligence. He emphasized prioritizing domestic, competitive, and sustainable technologies based on the natural resources of each region. For Galán, electrification is the best path to achieving more stable energy prices, increased employment, and greater sustainability.

The Iberdrola executive chairman, whose company celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, having established itself as Europe’s leading utility and one of the two largest in the world, also highlighted the role of electricity networks in ensuring supply security and enabling all the benefits of electrification. According to the company’s plan, Iberdrola expects to invest more than €58 billion by 2028, primarily in electricity transmission and distribution networks in the United Kingdom and the United States.

The panel was moderated by John Defterios, a current WEF contributor and SEforAll adviser with 35 years of experience at CNN, and featured Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar, Catherine MacGregor, CEO of ENGIE, and Andres Gluski, CEO of AES Corporation.