Fishways, butterfly landscapes and meadow restorations: Fortum’s efforts in Finland and Sweden to improve biodiversity

In recent years, the protection and restoration of biodiversity have increasingly become a spotlight topic alongside climate change mitigation. The reason for this is clear: more and more species and habitats are threatened by climate change and human activities. The topic will be given even more attention later in the year when the parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meet in Montreal to discuss how to protect and restore biodiversity.

Aligned with the targets of the EU Climate Pact and the Paris Agreement, our goal is to be carbon neutral by 2050 at the latest, and to be carbon neutral in European production by 2035. Given the close link between climate change and biodiversity loss, promoting carbon neutrality also supports the strengthening of biodiversity. However, emissions-free energy production also impacts biodiversity in a way that isn’t taken into consideration when focusing solely on climate impacts.

In fact, improving biodiversity requires systematic and long-term efforts. Our annually updated Biodiversity Action Plan lists the actions we are already taking and the actions we are planning to take. The majority of the actions focus on our hydropower production in Finland and Sweden.

For 2021, we set a Group-wide biodiversity target of at least 12 major voluntary measures promoting biodiversity. We carried out 13 projects, many of which are still continuing. In 2022, we have been developing a science-based strategy to measure and improve the biodiversity-relevant impacts of the Group’s activities and new projects. Some local examples of our biodiversity work are included below: