Pauliina Vuosio, vice-president of external communications at Finnish power and heating company Fortum, has highlighted the importance of emerging markets to its future growth strategy and added that the energy markets in these countries would be growing significantly in the next few decades.

She said: “We want to be at the forefront of reducing emissions in Russia and we are building plants there. In the medium term we also like China and India, but that will not happen for at least a year.”

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Of the three it certainly appears that Russia will be the prime focus of Fortum's expansion, with the moves into China and India likely to be years away. Fortum is already present in Russia, which makes further investments into the country much easier.

The firm produces heat from numerous sources, but takes pride in being one of the lowest emitters of carbon in the industry. While 22% of its heat production in 2009 came from coal, it claims that compared to rival firms such as GDF Suez Europe and even wind energy giant Iberdrola, it has far fewer carbon emissions.

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