3 February 2022
Denmark and Sweden amongst states protesting against EU Commission greenlight for gas in taxonomy
A European quartet consisting of Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria made a last-minute attempt to convince the European Commission not to label natural gas as a sustainable energy. "We call upon the European Commission to not include any fossil gas activities as sustainable in the current Taxonomy, as long as these activities are not subject to the same standards as other energy technologies," the countries' energy ministers wrote to Commissioner-in-Chief Maired McGuiness. Bloomberg noted that the protest was not expected to shake the Commission's plans, which turned out to be correct when the Commission announced it proposal..
Finland and Sweden also sent a separate letter to McGuinness criticizing the proposal for nuclear energy, saying the screening criteria fail to take into account advances in the disposal of waste in the countries. They added that the Commission should remove deadlines for investment in nuclear and clarify that the operation of existing facilities is in line with the taxonomy.
SEB issues EUR 1 billion green bond
SEB has raised EUR 1 billion through the issue of a green bond that will be used to finance green loans, in accordance with SEB's updated framework for green bonds. This is SEB’s second green bond since the bank's first green bond in 2017.
According to SEB, there was great interest in the green bond, which was a senior non-priority bond with a maturity of 5.5 years. A majority of the investors were European and Nordic financial institutions.
Trafigura joins Norwegian green ammonia project
In collaboration with Hy2gen and Trafigura, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners will build a plant in Norway that will produce green ammonia. The plant, named Iverson Efuels, will initially have an electrolysis capacity of 240 MW, producing 600 tpd of green ammonia, and with a goal to be scaled-up "significantly" in the future. The plan is for the ammonia to be used as fuel for ships.
CIP launches new DKK billion fund
The Danish Infrastructure Fund has launched a new fund to provide debt financing for renewable energy projects. The fund starts with DKK 2.3 billion in capital, with a target of raising DKK 7.5 billion.
Scatec Solar announces 2021 profit
Scatec’s consolidated revenues for 2021 ended at NOK 3.8 billion, more than NOK 1 billion more than the year before. Profit before tax was NOK 759 million in 2021, up from a deficit of NOK 238 million in 2020. Notwithstanding the decent recent, the Scatec share fell 5%, meaning that in the last year, the company has fallen over 60%.
Scatec reported that it had a power production of 1047 GWh in 4Q21, more than 2.5 times the corresponding period in 2020.
Helen to further increase its wind power production with a new investment
Helen will continue to invest in renewable energy by acquiring the Kalistanneva wind farm from the French VALOREM Group together with the Bank of Åland's Wind Power Special Investment Fund.
DTU and TotalEnergies in a new collaboration with a focus on green energy
Denmark’s DTU and TotalEnergies have signed a letter of intent that paves the way for a collaboration on research and education in green energy. The research centre will be part of DTU Wind Energy and will be located on DTU Risø Campus, where it will support DTU's strategy and ambition to strengthen the transition to a sustainable society through world-leading research in wind energy technologies.
What we’re reading
- EU faces down critics over green investment label for gas and nuclear power (Financial Times)
- UK government ‘failing’ to cut carbon emissions from home heating (The Guardian)
- Boris Johnson prepares plan to contain soaring energy bills (Financial Times)
- European industrial giants join nuclear fusion race (Financial Times)
- European Electricity Review 2022: Gas crisis interrupts EU coal exit (Ember)
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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