The estimated annual investments needed to combat climate change run in the thousands of billions of dollars globally and in the billions in Finland. The Climate Fund focuses its investments on the identified bottlenecks of climate solution commercialisation and entry into the market. Since its establishment, the company has made 125.4 million euros in investment decisions in 18 target companies with a total potential ten-year emissions reduction potential of up to 286 million carbon dioxide tonnes.
The Finnish Climate Fund launched its operations in December 2020, and the company’s first investment decision was a 10-million-euro capital loan to Solar Foods Oy in April 2021. In its first two years, the Climate Fund has invested a total of 125.4 million euros in 18 Finnish companies. The market has identified a clear and stable need for the Climate Fund’s funding, which is reflected in a dealflow established at over 300 investment targets. The total demand for Climate Fund’s funding among companies in the dealflow has become established at over one billion euros and is currently more than 1.5 billion.
Circular economy, bioindustry and hydrogen economy solutions, identified as Finnish strengths, have a pronounced role in the Climate Fund’s dealflow. In addition to these, the company has funded solutions related to food production, industrial emissions reductions, renewable energy, emissions reductions in shipping and digital climate solutions during its first two years.
The primary purpose of the Climate Fund’s operations is to achieve climate impact. The theoretical cumulative ten-year emissions reduction potential of the company’s whole investment portfolio is 286 Mt CO2eq if the business plans of its customers are realised to their full extent. Such full realisation entails significant uncertainties, however, and the handprint potential is not always equal to the emissions reductions ultimately achieved.
The Climate Fund showcased its first two operating years to an audience of approximately 250 people in an event held in Helsinki on 9 February 2023. The participants represented a broad cross-section of the Finnish field of climate change mitigation: climate solution development companies, scientists and experts, financial operators and representatives of the public sector. Minister of Employment Tuula Haatainen, responsible for the Climate Fund’s ownership steering, gave the owner’s greetings at the event. In addition to talks by the Climate Fund’s Chair of the Board, Perttu Puro, and CEO, Paula Laine, the event featured a panel discussion between the CEOs of the company’s three most recent investment targets – Tuomas Riski of Norsepower Oy, Laura Rahikka of Hycamite TCD technologies Oy and Teemu Kivimäki of Infrakit Oy – together with Chief Policy Advisor Janne Peljo of the Confederation of Finnish Industries.
See the Climate Fund’s most recent investment decisions:
More information:
Saara Mattero, Communications and Sustainability Director, the Climate Fund, tel. +358 400 114 777 saara.mattero@ilmastorahasto.fi
The Finnish Climate Fund is a Finnish state-owned special-assignment company. Its operations focus on combating climate change, boosting low-carbon industry and promoting digitalisation. The Climate Fund invests in large-scale projects in which the fund’s investment is crucial to enable the project’s realisation in the first place, on a larger scale or earlier than it would with funding from elsewhere.