Ask Fortum to truly go beyond coal

Finland has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2035. Yet the country’s majority state-owned energy company Fortum is aggravating the climate crisis. The German coal company Uniper is Fortum’s subsidiary, and both are determined to open the controversial new Datteln IV coal plant in Germany. Meanwhile, Uniper is also attempting to strong-arm the Dutch government into dropping a proposed law that would see all coal power for electricity production in the Netherlands phased out before 2030 – which is identical with Finland’s own coal phase-out timeline. If successful, Uniper’s threatened legal action under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) could cost the Dutch government as much as EUR 1 billion, and could be a significant setback for Dutch efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

At Fortum’s annual general meeting (AGM), CEO Pekka Lundmak made a big deal of climate action in his presentation to shareholders. To mean it Fortum needs to:

  1. Close (not sell!) all its coal plants by 2030, and make sure Uniper’s new Datteln 4 plant in Germany doesn’t open.
  2. Align Fortum and Uniper’s business strategy with the Paris UN Climate Agreement’s 1.5 degree Celsius temperature limit.
  3. Stop Uniper’s legal action against the Dutch coal phase-out plan

 

The future is renewable energy, and is starting now. Tell Fortum to do the right thing today: