Despite its commitment to reducing carbon emissions, Fortum has actually been moving backward. Between 2019 and 2021, the company increased its power generation from natural gas, coal, and biomass, while decreasing energy production from solar and wind. In 2021, renewable solar and wind power constituted less than 0.5% of the company’s total power generation. The company has not committed to phasing out its coal power projects by 2030 and still has no coal-exit plan for one of its power plants in Russia.

Fortum also hopes to achieve its net zero commitments through blue hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS). Because CCS is powered by fossil fuels, the greenhouse gas emissions of blue hydrogen may actually be higher than emissions from fossil gas and coal. Fugitive methane - gas which escapes during production and transportation -  floods into the atmosphere and poses a substantial risk at any blue hydrogen power plant. Fortum also baselessly assumes that captured carbon dioxide from its plants can be stored indefinitely. The company’s climate change mitigation strategy rests on unreliable technologies, even as it freely admits that “not all technical solutions are known yet or commercially available.”