Climate Lobbying Overview: Fortum is actively lobbying on EU energy and climate policy, with mixed and potentially inconsistent positions. Fortum appears to consistently support strong EU GHG emissions targets and reforms to strengthen the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), but has lobbied against EU regulations to promote renewable energy, including binding targets. Furthermore, Fortum appears to have expressed increasingly supportive positions on a prolonged role of coal in the EU’s energy mix.

Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Fortum’s top-line messaging on climate policy is broadly positive. The company stated support for the EU 2050 climate neutrality target in its 2021 Sustainability Report, published in March 2022. In the same report, Fortum supported the UN Paris Agreement. Fortum supported reducing GHG emissions to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C in its Climate Lobbying Review 2021, published in December 2021. The company welcomed new GHG emission reduction targets from India, Australia and Russia in a November 2021 blog. CEO Markus Rauramo advocated for a market-based, technology-neutral and flexible carbon pricing mechanism in the company’s December 2021 Climate Lobbying Review.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: Fortum appears to have a mixture of positive and negative engagement on specific climate regulations. In its 2021 Sustainability Report, published in March 2022, the company stated support for increasing the EU’s 2030 GHG emissions target to at least 55%. In a July 2021 Fit for 55 position statement, Fortum strongly supported reforms to the EU ETS, including increasing the Linear Reduction Factor, rebasing the emissions cap, and strengthening the Market Stability Reserve. Fortum also appeared to support new emissions trading systems for the transport and buildings sectors and to eventually integrate them into the EU ETS in its 2021 Sustainability Report, published in March 2022. Fortum appears to take mixed positions on the introduction of the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). In a March 2020 EU public consultation response, the company appeared to prefer global carbon pricing over the CBAM, stating the challenges of applying the policy in the industrial sector. However, a July 2021 statement on the Fit for 55 package suggested support for the CBAM, but did not specify a position on removal of existing carbon leakage protection for exposed sectors under the EU ETS.

Fortum’s support for the EU ETS has come at the expense of other EU climate regulations. The company supported weakening the EU Methane Regulation for the energy sector in an April 2022 public consultation response, including advocating for compensation for methane emissions reductions and not supporting the banning of routine venting and flaring. The company also signed a December 2021 joint letter to EU policymakers, supporting a weakening of the EU Commission’s proposal on the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) by advocating for the inclusion of non-renewable, low-carbon hydrogen. In a February 2022 blog, Fortum supported weakening strict renewable hydrogen requirements in a RED delegated act. However, its position on EU energy efficiency legislation appears to have improved since 2020, with the company supporting increased ambition through binding targets in the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive, in a February 2021 EU public consultation response.

Positioning on Energy Transition: Fortum appears to take mixed positions on the energy transition. Alongside its positions supporting the transition to renewable energy and hydrogen, Fortum promotes the long-term role of unabated fossil gas. In a February 2022 press release, the company supported a weakening of the EU sustainable finance taxonomy, to include unabated fossil gas technologies. Fortum also called for the EU Hydrogen and Gas Decarbonization Package to promote unabated fossil gas, and provide exemptions for LNG, in April 2022 EU Commission feedback comments.

In a December 2021 Climate Lobbying Review, Fortum supported the expansion of renewable electrification and the decarbonization of the economy, but maintained that this should be technology-neutral across all renewable energy sources. In a June 2021 blog, the company also appeared to show support for expanding the role of green hydrogen in the energy mix, while maintaining some role for blue hydrogen.

Industry Association Governance: Fortum published a December 2022 update to its review of alignment with its industry associations on climate lobbying released in December 2021, detailing its subsequent actions to address misalignments stated in initial review. However, the review excluded Hydrogen Europe.

A detailed assessment of the company's industry association review can be found on our CA100+ platform here.

InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q1 2023.

Additional Note: Fortum is a listed company with more than 50% of its shares owned by the government of Finland. State-owned enterprises likely retain channels of direct and private engagement with government officials that InfluenceMap is unable to assess, and therefore are not represented in Fortum's engagement intensity metric.