Finland’s government has finalised its budget draft for next year after settling its differences over the actions required to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. The Government agreed on measures to ensure that Finland will be carbon neutral by 2035, agreeing to emission reductions totalling about 14 to 15 Mt of CO2, which together with the climate programme for the land use sector that will be adopted later should be sufficient to achieve the carbon neutrality target.
The climate actions had created friction especially between the Centre and Green League. The differences were settled by adopting a backstop that obliges the government to decide on additional emission reductions no later than next spring if it is determined that the existing measures are insufficient.
According to Krista Mikkonen, Minister of the Environment and Climate, Finland’s plans for carbon neutrality lean heavily on the EUs carbon trading system. And Finnish companies have also been investing, but this will now be supported further with the investments via a corona stimulus package that is now set in motion in the budget debate. “Through the decisions of the budget debate, we are targeting subsidies for clean energy, new technology, low-carbon hydrogen, carbon capture and recovery, and the electrification of industrial processes. Next year will also see the entry into force of the long-awaited tax bill for large heat pumps, which will help the transition to clean heat production... Among other things, we decided to reduce transport emissions to less than half the 2005 level - even more than we have previously agreed. In order to accelerate emission reductions, the budget debate focused on, among other things, expanding the charging infrastructure for electric cars and the gas refueling network. There will also be a tax deduction for the purchase of electric cars. At the same time, preparations for emissions trading in transport will continue both at the domestic and EU level.” (Helsinki Times, valtioneuvosto)
Equinor, Horisont Energi and Vår Energi are to jointly develop the Barents Blue project, Europe's first large production plant for blue ammonia. Horisont Energi has signed an agreement to proceed with the Barents Blue project together, with the two industrial partners who have a strong local presence and extensive experience of large and complex technical projects.
Barents Blue will produce ammonia based on natural gas that can be used for several purposes, including fertiliser, the chemical industry and as a carrier for hydrogen. The goal is a production of 3,000 tonnes of blue ammonia per day by 2025. According to the plans, more than 99% of carbon dioxide in process gas is captured and stored permanently in the Polaris reservoir under the seabed off Norway
The development of the plant is based on Haldor Topsøe's SynCOR Ammonia technology and is expected to be ready for production in 2025.
In response, the Horison Energi share has risen around 25% over the week. (DN Investor, Dagens Miljoteknik)
Ørsted and T&T Group, one of Vietnam's leading companies with activities in several industries and 80,000 employees, signed a letter of intent to launch a strategic partnership on offshore wind in Vietnam. (ugebrev)
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 clip 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.