Climate|In the opinion of the climate panel, the government’s actions in transport policy lead in the wrong direction and carbon sinks should be strengthened by reducing logging.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
The climate panel assesses the government’s climate policy as insufficient.
The panel urges the government to implement cost-effective climate measures.
The panel encourages reducing deforestation and reducing the use of domestic wood.
The government’s decisions take the transport climate goals in the wrong direction.
Finland The climate panel assesses the government’s climate policy as insufficient.
Fresh in his statement The climate panel urges the government to “listen to the messages of science and implement cost-effective climate measures immediately”.
With cost-effective measures, the panel refers to, for example, reducing emissions from peat fields so that “the costs are not passed on to the farmers”.
In addition, the panel encourages the government to adopt a policy that reduces deforestation. The biggest reasons for the decrease in the number of coal sinks in Finland are high logging volumes.
The panel reminds that in ten provinces, the amount of felling has long exceeded even the limit of wood production sustainability, not to mention the limits of nature and climate.
“Finland must be able to create a vision for reducing the use of domestic wood while increasing its added value,” the statement reads.
Climate panel not acting on it is more expensive than acting, even though Finland alone cannot eliminate the world’s emissions.
“The year 2023 was the hottest in the history of measurements and extreme weather conditions are increasingly testing societies, nature and the economy around the world. Continuously advancing climate change has direct and indirect effects on Finland’s economy and security,” the statement says.
“By doing its part in the EU’s joint emission reductions, Finland is a bigger influence than its size.”
Sunbathing and protection from the sun on the shore of Lake Bodom in Espoo in June 2023. Although Finns enjoy the heat in appropriate amounts, longer periods of heat always cause health problems.
Climate panel according to the government still has the opportunity to update corrective measures in its climate and energy plan to be submitted to the EU by the end of June.
Currently, according to the panel, Finland will not keep its commitments.
“The government’s actions and policies so far are insufficient in relation to the legally binding goals,” the statement reads.
The heat should increase fertility in Finland, but on the other hand, droughts and new rains are causing gray hair for farmers. The picture shows a field in Tuusula from the summer of 2023, when Finland’s grain harvest was 16 percent below the ten-year average due to the drought in the early summer and the wetness in the late summer. 2022 was a normal harvest year, but 2021 and 2020 were clearly weaker than usual.
“In the land use sector and transport, determined actions are needed in order to achieve the agreed goals. The Climate Act and Finland’s EU obligations require an immediate course correction,” the panel states.
The climate panel is an independent expert body that provides science-based information to support decision-making. Its establishment is regulated in the Climate Act.
The last government enacted a climate act in which Finland committed to be carbon neutral in 2035. It means that carbon sinks and emissions are equal.
Carbon sink means the binding of carbon dioxide from the air to, for example, growing forests. Sinks cancel the warming effect of emissions by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
In the EU, Finland has committed to halve emissions from the burden-sharing sector from the 2005 level by 2030. The burden-sharing sector means sectors that are not part of the emissions trading system. The load-sharing sector includes, for example, transport, separate heating of buildings and agriculture.
In transport, the government’s decisions take the Climate Panel in the wrong direction. One such decision is the reduction of the obligation to distribute renewable fuels compared to what was previously agreed. According to the panel, that decision threatens the fulfillment of the 2030 commitment.
Not fighting climate change also has costs. The completely exceptional floods of the summer of 2023 in Slovenia caused costs estimated to be around 10 percent of the entire country’s annual gross domestic product.
In addition, the government has reduced the taxation of fossil fuels. According to the Climate Panel, the government slows down the electrification of road transport by “keeping the pump price of gasoline and diesel low” and gives “the wrong message about the price competitiveness of gasoline and diesel vehicles.”
The government the message has been that it focuses on technical solutions in climate policy, such as small nuclear power and for the promotion of carbon dioxide recovery. Realization of both on a larger scale will probably only be possible in the 2030s.
In addition, the government wants to increase Finland’s “climate footprint”, i.e. promote the export of Finland’s climate-friendly products to the world.
The climate panel states that emissions in energy production have decreased even slightly faster than expected. It is largely thanks to the EU emissions trading system.
According to the panel’s experts, successes in the energy sector still do not eliminate the need to take measures to strengthen carbon sinks and cut traffic emissions.
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