Fuel producer Neste will not honour a climate pledge made five years ago, instead offering a revised target for carbon emission reduction. The company blames its ‘current financial position and streamlined investment portfolio’ for the change of plan.

Originally, the world’s largest producer of biodiesel and SAF planned to reduce customer’s greenhouse gas emissions by ‘at least’ 20 million tonnes annually by 2030, and reach carbon neutral production by 2035. In a statement on The Climate Pledge website written in 2020, Neste stated: “These goals are driven by Neste’s purpose to create a healthier planet for our children”.

However, a new statement from the company communicating the revised target read: “Reaching the original climate targets by the previously communicated very ambitious target years would have required significant investments that are currently not realistic”.

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Instead, the target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in its own operations (Scope 1 & 2) is now 80% by 2040, replacing the target of reaching carbon neutral production by 2035. The timeline for the related interim target of 50% emission reduction is extended from 2030 to 2035. With these changes Neste focuses solely on absolute emission reductions in its own operations and removes the option of using emission compensation from its climate target setting. Two of Neste’s climate targets remain unchanged: the carbon footprint target to reduce the use-phase emission intensity of sold products by 50% by 2040, and the carbon handprint target to help customers reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 million tonnes annually by 2030.

“The company’s original targets to reduce its carbon footprint were based on a plan to transform Neste’s Porvoo refinery into a renewable and circular solutions refining hub by 2035. Since we announced the delay of Porvoo refinery transformation earlier this year, we have conducted a careful assessment of our climate targets to ensure they are ambitious but realistic. Neste’s current financial position does not allow further major capital expenditure beyond the ongoing 2.5 billion euros investment in expansion of our renewables refinery in Rotterdam. As investment projects in our industry take years to complete, the timelines of our climate targets have to be delayed under the current circumstances,” says Neste’s CEO Heikki Malinen.