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Eight European financial institutions have criticised the Finnish state-owned utility Fortum for endorsing the opening of the German coal-fired Datteln 4 power plant, set to be the last new coal plant in Western Europe, . Datteln 4 is run by the utility Uniper, a future subsidiary of Fortum. Fortum currently owns almost 50 percent of Uniper, and this share is about to rise to 70 percent, . "We believe opening the plant is not compatible with an ambitious decarbonisation trajectory and endangers the 2030 deadline for phasing out coal in the OECD – required to keep emissions within the critical 1.5°C carbon budget," wrote the investors, which include AXA Investment Managers and Aviva Investors, adding that opening Datteln 4 would be "out of step" with the German coal commission's recommendations. They also highlight that coal-fired power generation faces an increasingly negative economic outlook in Europe. Fortum's endorsement ties Datteln 4 to the Finnish state and could ultimately mean that Finland cannot reach its ambitious target of becoming climate neutral by 2035, writes Reinhard Wolff in the taz.

The Datteln 4 power plant is scheduled to go online this summer, despite Germany’s plans to phase out all coal power by 2038. The federal government and the state government in North-Rhine Westphalia argue that the plant, which has been in the works for more than a decade, will replace older, less efficient coal plants and ultimately reduce carbon emissions. But environmentalists say it makes no sense to bring a brand new source of coal power online when Germany is already struggling to meet its climate targets.