Norwegian energy firm Equinor has scaled back its climate goals amid increasing headwinds, Reuters reported on February 5.

The Stavanger-headquartered firm revealed that it will be lowering its target for renewable energy capacity by 2030. It marks a departure from its previous growth-oriented mindset, with the company purchasing onshore Brazilian renewables firm Rio Energy, about 18 months ago.

“For renewables, the ambition for installed capacity is reduced to 10-12 gigawatt by 2030," Equinor stated in a strategy update. The new target is a dip from the company’s previous goal of reaching 12-16 GW by 2030.

The target was originally set in 2021 and includes Equinor’s 10% interest in Danish offshore wind developer Orsted, along with a 16.2% stake in solar firm Scatec.

Since then, headwinds have emerged for the renewable energy sector, including rising interest rates, supply bottlenecks that formed during Covid-19, cost inflation, new regulatory regimes, as well as poor margins.

Amid this cloudy outlook for the renewables sector, investors have begun turning their backs on the renewables sector.

With this difficult business climate, Equinor also announced that the Norwegian firm would be ditching another 2030 goal. The company had previously sought to allocate 50% of gross capital expenditures to green energy as well as low carbon solutions.

The announcement by Equinor mirrors similar rollbacks by supermajors Shell and BP, which have also reduced their clean energy expansion plans, particularly in offshore wind, which the firms hoped their experience of operating at sea in the oil and sector would give them an added advantage.

Meanwhile, in a move to increase value creation and pivot towards current market conditions, Equinor revealed that it will target a rise of 10% growth in its oil and production from 2024 to 2027.