Finnpulp Dismayed by the KHO Decision to Shut Down the Kuopio Bioproduct Mill
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The Supreme Administrative Court has rejected the environmental permit for the Finnpulp bioproduct mill in Kuopio. The decision came after the vote, with two members in favor of an environmental permit. The decision is final and can no longer be appealed.
“This marks the end of the current mill project, which is a great loss for Finland,” says Niilo Pellonmaa, Chairman of the Board of Finnpulp.
Finnpulp questions the grounds for the decision. The project has been prepared with the best expertise in the world, including leading forestry companies such as Pöyry.
“We have provided all necessary and requested material to the authorities and courts during the permit process. Therefore, the statement in the statement of reasons for the decision that Finnpulp has not provided sufficient explanations is incomprehensible, ” says Martti Fredrikson, CEO of Finnpulp . He points out that according to the KHO decision, Finnpulp should have carried out a comprehensive assessment of the impact of all pollutants on Kallavesi's entire plant life cycle (40-50 years).
“This is a requirement that no industrial plant can meet. Such studies have not been required during this process either now or in previous forest industry projects, ”he says.
For comparison, Finnpulp points out that the authorities' water management plans are drawn up for six years. Even such water management plans do not address all of the factors required of Finnpulp.
The KHO has also based its decision on the obligation of the EU Water Framework Directive to achieve good status of the water body. Investigations commissioned by Finnpulp show that the ecological status of Kallavesi would not have deteriorated as a result of the mill.
According to Fredrikson, the decision of the KHO is in complete contradiction with previous positive decisions of the Regional Government Office and Vaasa Administrative Court.
Finnpulp's environmental permit project lasted nearly five years. The company began an environmental impact assessment in spring 2015 and the Regional Authority of Eastern Finland granted the permit in March 2017. The permit was appealed to the Vaasa Administrative Court, which specializes in environmental matters. The decision of the Vaasa Administrative Court in 2018 was still appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court.
According to Niilo Pellonmaa, the decision of the KHO is a serious message abroad. “According to this decision, the Finnish investment environment is not attractive to international investors. There was a lot of interest in the Finnpulp project worldwide, and we were already attracted by a significant international investor. Understandably, investors value investments when considering stability and predictability. For international investors and new large projects in general, such long uncertainty is too much, ”says Pellonmaa.
"We are very disappointed," says Hengan International, which now owns 36.5% of Finnpulp . “The reason for our investment decision was that we had already trusted the Finnish society behind the project on the basis of an environmental permit issued by the regional government,” says Hengan. “We have also clearly appreciated the positive attitude of the city of Kuopio and the surrounding province towards the project. From an environmental point of view, too, this would have become a world-class factory. ”
According to Finnpulp, the environmental permit granted by the Vaasa Administrative Court in 2018 would have meant that water emissions would be about 40% lower per tonne produced compared to modern Finnish pulp mills.
The cost estimate for Finnpulp's bioproduct mill was EUR 1.6 billion, but given the multiplier effects, the significance for society would have been much greater. The factory would have increased GDP by 0.4%. Once completed, the employment effect would have been 3,400.
