Neste is loosening its climate targets because they would require too large investments

Fuel company Neste is loosening some of its climate goals, which have proven to be too ambitious.

The reason for relaxing the goals is that Neste is not able to make the large investments that would be required to achieve the original goals.

The original goals were calculated on the basis that Neste would be able to turn its oil refinery in Porvoo into a refinery for renewable and circular economy solutions by 2035.

At the moment, however, Neste cannot afford any major investment other than the 2.5 billion euro giant project underway in Rotterdam. It is an expansion of the renewable fuels refinery.

“In our industry, investment projects take years, and because of that, it is necessary to change the schedule of our climate goals in the current situation,” says Neste’s CEO Heikki Malinen in the company’s announcement.

The company has already said earlier this year that the conversion process at the Porvoo refinery will be delayed.

New according to a looser goal, Neste aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2040.

Initially, the goal was to make production carbon neutral by 2035.

The intermediate goal set for 2030 will also be moved to 2035. The intermediate goal is a 50 percent emission reduction.

With these changes, Neste says it will focus on the absolute emission reductions of its own operations and will give up the possibility of using emission compensation in its climate goals.

As before, Neste keeps its carbon footprint goal, i.e. the effort to reduce the emission intensity of the use phase of the sold products by 50 percent.

There will also be no change in Neste’s customers’ carbon footprint target. Carbon footprint refers to the positive climate effects caused by products or services. The goal is to further reduce them annually by at least 20 million tons by 2030.

Neste is the world’s leading producer of renewable jet fuel and renewable diesel.