In 2019, the Nordic countries issued a common declaration to make the region carbon neutral. The declaration commits the countries to assess scenarios for how to achieve carbon neutrality, including the implications such scenarios would entail for various sectors. The declaration emphasised the necessity and benefit of collaborative action and invited the Nordic Council of Ministers to prepare a proposal on how to ensure that the Nordic region to fulfil their part of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Three Nordic Clean Energy Scenarios were developed to support this work. These scenarios identified five solution tracks that can deliver carbon neutrality by 2050: direct electrification; PtX; bioenergy; CCS technologies; and behavioural change. More importantly, over the next decade, the rate of necessary emission reductions needs to happen at a pace five times faster than currently achieved.