We have systematically developed our forest assets and expanded the plantations in Uruguay, continuously improving the productivity of our operations. When the UPM Paso de los Toros pulp mill starts up by the end of Q1 2023, we will have grown our pulp business by more than 50%. Meanwhile, our plantations have established a new renewable raw material base for growing global fibre needs. At the same time, we have created permanent new carbon storage of 55 million tonnes in our Uruguayan plantations.
When thinking about energy, there are two crucially important topics: the European energy crisis and climate change. Europe needs to cut ties with Russian fossil energy imports. In the short term, this means that we need a lot of new carbon-free energy generation and, at the same time, we need savings and flexibility in energy consumption.
Our growing energy generation is set to be in high demand in the current energy market situation. UPM Energy’s carbon-free electricity generation will increase by nearly 50% with the startup of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant unit in Finland. It is currently in its testing phase.
On the other hand, our energy-consuming businesses are very experienced in planning and adjusting to short-term changes in the energy markets. This helps to save costs but is also important for the stability of the electricity system.
Our climate-positive products also notably contribute to mitigating climate change. As an example, our biofuels and biochemical businesses are all about decarbonising traffic and replacing fossils. We aim to grow in these attractive businesses significantly in the coming years. We are currently building the world’s first biochemicals refinery in Leuna, Germany and it is scheduled to start up by the end of 2023.
We enable our customers and consumers to make more sustainable choices. This is good business for us all.
