Nordic Sustainability Briefing: green-claims rules for websites, Enova cuts and COP17 nature finance
New EU green-claims rules, a proposed cut to Norway's Enova funding, and slowing growth in Swedish solar installations lead today's briefing, alongside COP17 nature-finance figures and fresh research on nature-based insurance and compound heat-and-smoke exposure.
Green Web Foundation tells site owners to reconsider its 'green hosting' badge under the EU EmpCo rules
The Green Web Foundation says its badge wording, which uses the unqualified term "green hosting", likely does not meet the EU's new green-claims directive (EmpCo). It advises website owners with doubts to remove the badge until revised wording is published in October or November. The foundation also tightened its hosting-verification criteria on 1 October 2026, and carbon offsets no longer count towards carbon-free energy claims.
Norway's 2027 budget proposal would cut transfers to Enova by NOK 3.8 billion
The government proposes cutting Enova's 2027 transfers by NOK 3.8 billion, which NRK describes as almost halving the 2026 appropriation. Enova funds climate measures for households and businesses. The government notes that Enova holds NOK 36 billion in accumulated funds, which Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg says leaves room to keep awarding grants.
Sweden's solar installations grew just 7% last year as support for small producers changed
Energimyndigheten reports 21,600 grid-connected solar installations were added last year, up 7% on 2024, compared with 70% growth between 2022 and 2023. The agency links the slowdown to the economic situation and changed support for small-scale producers, affecting both firms and households. The 60 öre/kWh tax reduction for surplus electricity ended on 1 January 2026.
UN stocktake: nature finance from developed countries falls well short of the 2025 target as COP17 opens
A UN Convention on Biological Diversity stocktaking report, reported by Carbon Brief, finds developed nations are not closing the $200bn biodiversity finance gap. Reporting countries provided a cumulative $17.7bn in international public biodiversity funding over 2020–23, an average of $4.4bn a year against a target of at least $20bn a year by 2025. Finance is expected to be a key point of contention at the Yerevan talks, which run from 19 to 30 October.
Study: nature-based insurance could redirect tens of billions towards risk-reducing nature projects
Inside Climate News reports a new study outlining insurance policies that reward wetland restoration and wildfire prevention, which it says can lower insurers' costs and policyholders' premiums. Lead author Megan Kelso says it "could be tens of billions of dollars" going to nature-based projects that reduce risk.
Study finds more people face heat waves and wildfire smoke at the same time
A study in Science Advances, reported by Inside Climate News, finds the number of people exposed to at least one day of combined heat and fire pollution rose from 761 million a year in 2000–2009 to more than 1 billion a year in 2010–2019. The average number of days with both exposures per person rose from one to 1.7. The highest exposures were in countries with fewer resources to adapt.