Coal-free Finland
Helsinki, 1 April 2025 – Power utility Helen is decommissioning its 177 MW Salmisaari coal plant today, bringing Finland to the brink of a full coal phase-out four years ahead of schedule.
Lue lisää “Helsinki’s Salmisaari coal plant closes, marking a near-total coal exit for Finland”
The European steel industry stands at a pivotal crossroads. As one of the most emissions-intensive sectors, responsible for 5% of the EU’s total emissions and over a quarter of industrial emissions, its transformation is essential to achieving the European Union’s ambitious climate goals.
Lue lisää “New report by an NGO network examines the state of the European steel transition”
While climate experts are issuing more and more dire warnings of what will happen if we fail to transition into a 1.5°C world, the biggest Nordic banks continue to pour billions of Euros in financing and investments into coal, oil, and gas companies planning new fossil fuel projects that will bring this global climate goal out of reach.
Assessing lending and investments combined, DNB and Nordea stand out among Nordic banks as the biggest financial supporters of the worst fossil fuel companies that undermine global climate goals. Lue lisää “New report exposes Nordic banks’ support for dirty fossil fuel companies”
The Met Coal Exit List (MCEL) is a public database of coal companies which are expanding their met coal mining activities, featuring 160 companies worldwide. Finnish major financiers hold shares in some companies listed in the MCEL. Lue lisää “Time to End Metallurgical Coal Expansion – NGOs Launch First Met Coal Exit List for the Finance Industry”
A new brief, Nordic Finance Unmasked, examines the investments of the 20 largest Nordic pension funds and 10 largest Nordic banks in the top 50 expanding metallurgical coal companies and the 100 largest steel-producing companies as of July 2023.
Despite policies adopted by Nordic financial institutions to phase out thermal coal in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, similar actions are missing for metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking, to achieve climate goals. The policy analysis of this brief reveals that most Nordic investors lack a metallurgical coal policy. Lue lisää “New report exposes Nordic financial institutions’ metallurgical coal & steel holdings”
Greenpeace Nordic, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (Naturskyddsföreningen) and Action Aid Denmark (Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke) have filed a shareholder resolution at Nordea’s Annual General Meeting. The resolution is also supported by Fair Finance Guide and Hiilivapaa Suomi.
Lue lisää “NGO-led shareholder resolution demands Nordea to stop financing fossil fuel expansion”
Steel is an emission intensive commodity widely used in society and responsible for 7-9% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonisation of the steel industry is crucial to the overall green transition. As global steel demand is projected to increase by 40% by 2050, the need for a rapid decarbonisation of the industry is pressing.
The decarbonisation of the steel industry poses both risks and opportunities for investors. There is overhanging regulatory risk and at the same time a strong need for financing of emerging technologies. Lue lisää “Investor roundtable on steel decarbonisation”
A global group of 67 organisations led by BankTrack and Reclaim Finance is calling on 50 of the world’s largest banks to end all financial support for new metallurgical coal production and expansion. Banks risk stranded assets and climate catastrophe in steel lending without metallurgical coal exclusions.
Coal-Free Finland / Friends of the Earth Finland has signed the letter.
→ Read the press release and the letter
This article originally published on SteelWatch Insights
Friends of the Earth Finland recently analysed whether companies that buy steel are using their power to encourage decarbonisation of this high-emissions product. Their new Scoreboard shows the companies are doing very little.
For most companies, decarbonising the supply chain (upstream Scope 3) has become the priority area of action, dwarfing their own direct emissions. Steel is an input supplied to a myriad of companies, and is a carbon-intensive product (almost 2 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel). So by now we might expect steel buyers to be driving decarbonisation in the steel supply chain. Lue lisää “It’s time companies use their purchasing power to decarbonise the polluting steel industry”
Press release
Civil society organizations criticize GSCC certification for ignoring social and environmental impacts of steelmaking and lacking meaningful measures to reduce emissions
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today civil society organizations published an open letter calling on policymakers, steelmakers, and buyers to disregard a recent “standard” released by the Global Steel Climate Council. The organizations argue that this standard, which was created to influence trade agreements, including a pending deal between the United States and European Union, favors the existing practices of a small fraction of steelmakers in wealthy nations rather than creates mechanisms to meaningfully decarbonize global steelmaking, and should be ignored in any government standards or trade agreements. Lue lisää “New industry-led “standard” for low-emissions steel slammed as EU-US trade deal looms”