1 June 2022
Finland sets world’s most ambitious climate target
On 25 May, the world’s most ambitious climate target was approved by the Finnish Parliament. The new Climate Change Actwill commit the country to carbon neutrality by 2035, and “carbon negativity” by 2040, making Finland the first country in the world to make its commitment to carbon negativity legally binding. The target was determined by independent economists from the Finnish climate change panel, who based it on a scientific analysis of the country’s share of the global population, its ability to pay to reduce emissions and its historic responsibility for causing climate change. The new law also updates Finland’s absolute emissions reduction targets, requiring at least a 60% reduction by 2030 and 80% by 2040, as compared with 1990 levels. Finland has previously committed to an 80% reduction by 2050, thus the changes in law put the country’s progress forward by a full decade.
In an interview, Finland’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Emma Kari, addressed the new law and urged other countries to implement more ambitious targets as well. “High-income countries have to take a progressive and active role when it comes to tackling climate change.”
However, Finland’s chosen definition for its climate targets depends largely on its forests, which cover ¾ of the country’s land area. The more trees that are left standing the greater the calculated CO2 sink. Unfortunately, newly published figures from Statistics Finland show that for the first time, Finnish forests had released more GHG than they absorbed.
Danish PM reacts to Russia’s gas halt
Denmark’s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, addressed Gazprom Export’s decision to shut off all Russian gas deliveries to Denmark. The decision comes after Ørsted announced that it will not meet the Russian demand of paying in rubles, rather than euros. In an interview with TV2, Frederiksen referred to Gazprom’s decision as blackmail and completely unacceptable.
OX2 sells solar and wind farms in Poland for SEK 1.7 billion
OX2 and Ingka Investments (part of Ingka Group, the world’s largest IKEA franchise) have signed a purchase agreement for a total value of SEK 1.7 billion. The deal includes the Wesoka wind farm and the Recz solar park in Poland, which will have an estimated total capacity of 63 MW and 29 MW, respectively. Construction of the Wysoka wind farm will begin during 3Q22 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
Hydro plans to build solar and wind farms in Brazil
Industrial giant Hydro has entered into an agreement with Macquarie Asset Management’s Green Investment Group for a collaborative project that will build and operate the Feijão wind and solar power project in Brazil. In the first phase, 80 wind turbines with a total capacity of 456 MW will be installed, with the hope of developing up to 180 MW of solar power in the second phase. Total investment costs for the wind farm are estimated at USD 700 million.
Teco 2030 presents NOK 20 million loss in 1Q22
In its report for 1Q22, hydrogen company Teco 2030 presents a result of NOK 20 million in losses, compared with a loss of NOK 13.2 million in 1Q22. However, the company recently announced that it had secured a convertible loan of NOK 70.6 million from existing investors. At the moment, Teco 2030 is working on developing a fuel cell for hydrogen in collaboration with Austrian AVL, and is scheduled to establish a factory in Narvik.
Hitachi Energy renews support to Fingrid
Hitachi Energy has decided to renew the serial compensation equipment of the Finnish grid company Fingrid’s Uusmala substation. The reform will increase the north-south transmission capacity, making it possible to connect wind power production more widely to the grid and keep Finland as a single price area in the electricity market. The project is expected to be finalised by the end of 2023.
Baseload Capital uses right to conditional early redemption of SEK 500 million bonds
The investment entity Baseload Capital recently announced that the company had exercised its call for a voluntary early redemption of all of its outstanding bonds. In total, the bonds amount to a value of SEK 500 million.
What we’re reading
- UK and EU hit Russian oil cargoes with insurance ban (Financial Times)
- The $1.4tn that energy investors risk losing (Financial Times)
About Nordic Green News
The Nordic countries are some of the most dynamic and successful economies in the world. They are also leaders in sustainability, from renewable energy, biofuels, carbon capture and storage and the hydrogen economy, circular economy business models and battery development, the Nordics are pioneers in policy design, technology development and consumer uptake. Mundus Nordic Green News is covering this transition for the international community. Every day we curate the stories of most relevance to international businesspeople and policy experts from the flow of news. Mundus Nordic Green Indices summarise the meta-data from our daily coverage to enable easy tracking of trends. We supplement these with our own opinion pieces and commentary.
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