Finnish energy giant to publish biodiversity transition plan 

Fortum is set to become one of the world’s first companies to develop both a climate and a biodiversity transition plan. 

The energy producer, majority-owned by the Finnish state, used its first mandatory report under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to lay out its plans.  

It said it hoped to develop a “biodiversity transition plan” by the end of the year, building on targets it set itself in 2023 after using the Global Biodiversity Score tool.

Fortum has committed to no net loss of biodiversity from its Scope 1 and 2 operations after 2030. 

A significant chunk of its energy comes from hydropower, but it excludes aquatic impacts from the target, claiming there is currently a lack of high-quality methodologies in the space. It added that it is working on developing relevant tools to fix this, including by supporting the development of the aquatic segment of the Global Biodiversity Score and participating a pilot study in Finland.  

In the meantime, Fortum said it would “continue building a process to qualitatively assess the aquatic impact and mitigation possibilities”.

On climate, Fortum published a transition plan in 2023 and committed to get its decarbonisation targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative – a goal it fulfilled last month.  

TNFD training for listed companies 

Meanwhile, the UN-backed Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative has just announced it will deliver a series of nature-based training programmes for listed companies in developed and emerging markets. 

The programmes will use guidance from the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, which today launched a platform for self-guided learning and another offering materials for training. 

Both platforms are available on the TNFD website via the knowledge hub.