Nordic clean tech deployment gained momentum as Finland’s Ministerial Finance Committee gave a positive endorsement toward granting $23 million (€21 million) in government funding to forestry giant Metsä Fibre.
If officially approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the state-backed financial support will back a proposed $81.3 million (€70 million) biogenic carbon capture unit at the company’s industrial pulp facility located in Rauma.
Designed to extract biogenic carbon dioxide directly from mill exhaust systems, the infrastructure carries a planned annual capacity of 100,000 metric tons. Captured emissions will subsequently be converted into renewable electrofuels, offering a scalable template for future industrial decarbonization initiatives across Europe.
While the ministerial panel’s support marks a crucial political milestone, state officials emphasized that a final binding subsidy determination remains pending under national administrative processes.
The initiative forms part of a broader government allocation earmarking $104.5 million (€90 million) in public funding for industrial biogenic emissions abatement.
Relevant: Finland’s Metsä Group Tests Carbon Capture at Pulp Mill In Bid To Curb Emissions
framed the proposal as an essential step toward building commercial-scale infrastructure necessary to fulfill national climate commitments and foster emerging green hydrogen value chains.
“One of the priorities of the Government’s climate policy is to develop solutions that reduce emissions and capture carbon from industry and energy production. Finland needs leading innovators to develop industrial-scale projects, which in turn will help promote the implementation of more large-scale capture plants in future. The project endorsed by the Ministerial Finance Committee is exactly the kind we need,” said Minister of Climate and the Environment Sari Multala.
Finland part of broader carbon capture drive
The Finnish initiative sits at the center of a growing European movement to commercialize Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS). Unlike fossil-based point-source capture, biogenic carbon capture targets carbon dioxide emitted from organic materials such as timber and pulp side-streams.
When combined with green hydrogen, this captured biogenic carbon serves as a essential feedstock for e-fuels, synthetic aviation fuels, and green chemicals.
The European Union’s Net Zero Industry Act and updated Emissions Trading System (ETS) regulations have put increased pressure on heavy industries to scale up capture technologies. Similar large-scale industrial capture initiatives are advancing across Scandinavia and Northern Europe, backed by public-private co-financing models like the EU Innovation Fund.
Beyond synthetic fuel production, Finland recently signed cross-border agreements with Nordic neighbors to transport captured carbon for permanent geological storage beneath the North Sea, positioning biogenic capture as both a domestic energy solution and a high-value export sector.
Read more: Finland And Norway Deepen Climate Cooperation With Cross-Border Carbon Storage Deal