Climate actions

Press release 2021 Press release 2020

Ambitiously towards a future beyond fossils

Our aspiration is high when we look at the opportunities to respond to the global climate challenge. We are among the first global forest industry companies who are committed to the UN’s Business Ambition for 1.5°C to take tangible actions to mitigate climate change. As part of this commitment we have set a 2030 responsibility target to decrease our own emissions by 65% and this target is approved by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi).

We are also the only forest industry company who has joined
The Climate Pledge by Amazon and the Global Optimism,
a cross-sector community of world-class companies working together
to crack the climate crisis and to decarbonise our economy.

While mitigating climate change, we create long term value for UPM.

Climate-positive forestry

As human kind, we are testing the limits or our planet. How we use land is a critical to climate change mitigation. Trees and plants capture carbon dioxide from atmosphere when they grow. At the same time carbon dioxide is stored in the soil. Thriving forests is an efficient way to mitigate climate change. That’s why we are committed to climate-positive forestry and biodiversity promotion. We are also exploring new ways to use agricultural lands in a way that creates both climate benefits and new economic opportunities to farmers.

Read more about forests Read more about climate-positive fuels

Less CO₂ emissions

Minimising the use of fossil fuels is the most important way to mitigate climate change. Our ambitious goal is to reduce CO2 emissions from fuels and purchased electricity used at our production sites by 65 percent from the 2015 level by 2030. We also aim to reduce the emission levels of our supply chain by 30 percent from the 2018 level by 2030. Furthermore, we produce CO2 emission-free hydro and nuclear power in Finland.

Innovative products

Innovating novel products beyond fossils is the core of our Biofore strategy. We develop safe and sustainable products and offer alternatives to fossil materials. Many of our products are already proven to be climate-positive. In the future, we aim to scientifically verify the climate impacts of all our products.

Our commitments by 2030

1.5°C

Limiting global temperature rise

-65%

Reduction of CO2 emissions

-30%

Reduction of CO2 emissions of our supply chain

Climate-positive land-use and product portfolio

About managing the climate issues

Our Biofore strategy guides us in achieving our responsibility targets for 2030 and in contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the UN 2030 Sustainability Agenda. The Group Executive Team, headed by the President and CEO, is in charge of the management of corporate responsibility, determining courses of action and guiding development work. In practice, corporate responsibility efforts take place in businesses and functions. The management of climate change related issues was further strengthened in 2019 with specific topics, such as UPM's resilience in different climate scenarios, reported directly to the executive management.

Regarding climate change, UPM has been committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) since 2017. In November 2020 we received the validation for our 2030 responsibility target to decrease our CO2 emissions by 65%. This proves that our target is aligned with the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

Evaluating the impacts of climate change

We have evaluated the impacts of climate change in many ways. For example, we conducted a study with the Finnish meteorological Institute (FMI) about the physical impacts of climate change in different scenarios. Internal analysis was used to evaluate impacts of transition scenarios and TCFD recommendations were used to report findings (disclosure in Annual Report, pages 137-138). At the end of 2020, we started a study on climate-related substitution and the carbon storage effects of our products with two research insitutes, the German IFEU and the Finnish Environment institute (SYKE).