Climate Lobbying Review

Fortum strongly supports the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit the average rise in global temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C, and we are committed to lobbying for policy positions that we believe are in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement and the world achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. This applies both to our direct lobbying, as well as to our indirect lobbying through the industry associations that we are a member of.

Corporate transparency continues to be requested by institutional investors and non-governmental organisations. We are committed to the objectives of the Climate Action 100+ initiative, which has significant influence on how climate-related corporate activities will be disclosed in the future. 

Lewis Ashworth, Senior Analyst, Climate Specialist, Investment Stewardship, Asset Management, L&G, commented Fortum's Climate Lobbying Review 2025: "At L&G – Asset Management, we firmly believe that ambitious climate policy is essential to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. Companies play a significant role in shaping these policies. It is in their interest for their climate policy positions, as well as their direct and indirect lobbying activities, to align with their corporate goals and greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.

We have been engaging with Fortum for several years. We have been very encouraged by the constructive discussions we have had and welcome their latest Climate Lobbying Review. This review demonstrates Fortum's proactive approach and the progress it has made in this field. The detailed disclosure of its climate-related lobbying activities and the commitment to align these with the Paris Agreement highlight Fortum's dedication to addressing the global climate crisis, which we believe represents a financially material and systemic long-term risk to our clients’ portfolios," Ashworth said.

Fortum’s Climate Lobbying Review 2025

The 2025 review covers 11 associations that Fortum is a member of. The associations were selected based on several criteria, including geographical scope, importance for climate policy development, and Fortum’s level of influence within the association.

The review of the industry associations was carried out by a third-party actor, which also conducted a review of our own climate lobbying positions. The associations were evaluated on how aligned the industry associations are with the goals of the Paris Agreement and our climate advocacy principles: climate science and the Paris Agreement; climate neutrality goal; carbon pricing; policy coherence; technology neutrality; energy transition; and carbon removals and negative emissions.

Overall, the alignment of the associations to the Paris Agreement and Fortum’s climate advocacy principles is high. The findings indicate that four of the eleven associations reviewed are fully aligned, and four associations demonstrate partial alignment on one or more of the climate advocacy principles. Three associations don’t have an official position on one of the principles. We do not see any cases of misalignment. All associations were fully aligned with the principles of climate science and the Paris Agreement, the climate neutrality goal and the energy transition.

As the review has concluded that all associations are sufficiently aligned with our advocacy principles, we will continue to engage with all the assessed associations. We will continue the dialogue with the associations on topics where we would appreciate a more explicit positioning. Our plan is to continue publishing the Climate Lobbying Review every other year.

Previous editions and updates (2021–2023)

In December 2021, we published Fortum’s first Climate Lobbying Review of 15 industry associations in which Fortum is a member in Europe, Russia and India. The first update was published in 2022 with a focus on the dialogue with associations that were only partially aligned with the Paris Agreement and Fortum’s climate advocacy principles.

In 2022–2023, our corporate structure changed significantly as a result of the divestment of Uniper in Germany and the exit from our Russian operations and business relationships. The sale of our ownership in Uniper SE to the German State was concluded in December 2022, and the Russian assets were deconsolidated in 2023, fully written down, and the operations classified as discontinued. Consequently, the industry associations in Germany and Russia were no longer within the scope of our Climate Lobbying Review.

In 2023, we continued discussions with two Polish associations that our 2022 review update identified as still being only partially aligned: the Chamber of Commerce Polish District Heating (IGCP) and the Polish Association of Professional Heat and Power Plants (PTEZ). We continued to believe that the advocacy of these two associations is evolving, and we welcomed both PTEZ’s and IGCP’s support for the goals of EU climate policy and the Fit for 55 legislation in 2023. However, as the national implementation of the revised EU ETS, the Renewable Energy Directive, the Energy Efficiency Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is starting in Poland, and taking into account the national priorities and emphases, we were not yet convinced of IGCP’s and PTEZ’s full alignment with our climate advocacy principles. In particular, the national ambition and speed of decarbonisation were seen to remain a challenge due to the high dependence on fossil fuels.

We decided continue to engage with the two Polish industry associations and work constructively with them on climate-related policies. We urged these associations to engage in continued and constructive advocacy with the Polish Government in support of the EU 2040 target and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. We also encouraged the associations to analyse the results of the COP28 summit and how its decisions on the global energy transition should be considered in the Polish context.