Mundus Nordic Green News – 8 December, 2020

Sweden retains top ranking in global climate policy survey

Unfortunately, although Sweden came top, it still received a B-grade for its policies. In fact, none of the world's 58 biggest emitters are on a decarbonisation pathway compatible with the Paris Agreement, according to the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) - an annual assessment of progress on emissions reduction, renewable energy deployment, climate policy, and energy use put together by several influential NGOs. Given that the first 3 spots were left blank (due to underperformance), the Nordics took 4 of the top 8 spots reserved for real countries (Sweden, 4, Denmark, 6, Norway, 8 and Finland, 11).  Other countries making up the Top 10 were UK, 5; Morocco, 7; Chile, 9 and India, 10.

 

The CCPI evaluates 57 countries and the European Union, which together generate 90%+ of global greenhouse gas emissions. Using standardised criteria, the CCPI looks at four categories, with 14 indicators: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (40% of the overall score), Renewable Energy (20%), Energy Use (20%), and Climate Policy (20%).

 

Orsted and Yara amongst other industrialists pushing to lower hydrogen costs

The Financial Times reports that a consortium of energy companies has joined forces in an effort to drive the cost of green hydrogen below $2 per kilogram — the price at which they estimate the eco-friendly inert gas will become an attractive alternative to fossil fuels. The group, which includes Denmark’s Ørsted, Italy’s Snam, Spain’s Iberdrola, the Saudi-based ACWA Power, the Australian CWP Renewables, China’s Envision and the Norwegian chemical company Yara, is aiming to lower prices by boosting their combined output of green hydrogen to 25 gigawatts by 2026, a 50-fold increase over present minimal levels. According to Marco Alverà, CEO of Snam, an Italian energy infrastructure company, “When you feed that magic number of $2 per kilo into the economic models, then [green hydrogen] starts displacing diesel”. Doing so would require green hydrogen costs to be more than halved in the next 6 years. Mr Alverà describes the collaboration among the energy companies as a sort of “Airbus for hydrogen”.

 

SSAB defends itself against criticism that at acquisition runs against green ambition

SSAB has plans to acquire Tata Steel's steelworks in the Netherlands, an acquisition that has been criticized due to the steelworks' emissions. But SSAB rejects the criticism. According to SSAB's technical manager Martin Pei, “The technology we develop within Hybrit is useful for all steel companies. SSAB's goal of becoming completely fossil-free by 2045 will apply to all our production facilities worldwide. If the deal goes through, we will still have that goal.”

 

Hybrit, in which SSAB is part owner, alongside LKAB and Vattenfall, aims to develop the world's first fossil-free ore-based steel production using hydrogen, a project that has already taken its first steps, and the idea of ​​the deal goes through is to also restructure the steel plant in the Netherlands according to Hybrid's technology.

 

Fortum, Gasum, Neste, Stora Enso, St1, Wärtsilä and Afry join P2X project

The Finnish network, the Climate Leadership Council (CLC) is beginning to explore an industrial-scale Power-To-X project, which aims to bring industrial-scale P2X projects to the pre-study phase. The basic idea of ​​P2X technologies is to convert electricity into other forms of energy, including synthetic fuels used in transport and industry, and back to electricity if necessary. The CLC network of Finnish companies is beginning to investigate an industrial-scale P2F project. In addition to technical solutions and production plant locations, the study examines how to create demand and markets for synthetic fuels. 

 

Dagens Industri lays down challenge to Sweden’s top corporates with Sustainability Index

A year ago, Dagens Industri, Sweden’s top business daily launched a Sustainability Index in conjunction with MSCI, a global provider of financial services and analysis tools. This year, Dagens Industri updated the indices, and extended it to includes most of Sweden’s leading corporates. According to the paper, the point of doing this is to put pressure on the companies’ management to lift their game. The index includes Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions, using figures that the companies themselves have published. Dagens industri says that “The result shows a positive development”. For more.

 

Swedish industry concerned for impending electricity crisis 

An impending electricity crisis has resulted in a number of Sweden’s industrial entities moving investments abroad,. Trade association IKEM, which represents the chemical, pharmaceutical, plastics and refinery industries has conducted a survey amongst its members. 45% state that the willingness to invest decreases in factories with higher energy costs. And a quarter of all companies that responded to the survey state that sharply increased energy costs can lead to shifts in production to places with lower energy costs. “Since most companies only have one production unit in Sweden, this means moving production to other countries. This is extremely serious, not least considering that these industries account for tens of thousands of jobs and export revenues of more than SEK 300 billion,” says Mikael Möller, Head of EU Public Affairs at IKEM. “We see an increasing risk that the electricity supply will work worse in the future. It would be completely devastating because we run our facilities around the clock, all year round and are completely dependent on the electricity working,” says Andreas Malmberg, CEO of the plastics group Trioplast, which sells plastics for everything from hay bales to industrial and food packaging.

 

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