The environmental organizations Greenpeace and the Finnish Nature Conservation Union have complained about insufficient climate measures to the Supreme Administrative Court. According to the Minister of the Environment, it is good that civil society puts pressure on decision-makers.
28.11. 15:57 | Updated 28.11. 20:40
Minister of the Environment and Climate Maria Ohisalo (vihr) regards the legal process initiated by environmental organizations regarding Finland’s climate policy as an important precedent.
The environmental organizations Greenpeace and the Finnish Nature Conservation Union demand the government to take faster climate action through the courts. Organizations have complained about insufficient climate measures to the Supreme Administrative Court.
Read more: “The government has not followed its own law” – Environmental organizations justify taking the state to court
Ohisalo (green) emphasizes that Finland is committed to international climate goals and decided in the Climate Act that Finland will be carbon neutral in 2035.
“This requires both emission reduction measures and sufficient carbon sinks,” says Ohisalo.
The carbon stocks of forests, which curb climate change, have not increased as expected, but on the contrary have weakened significantly, even collapsed. This has led to the fact that the mainstay of Finland’s climate policy is shaking.
“It is clear that we need a rescue package for carbon sinks. Climate actions in the land use sector are the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry,” says Ohisalo.
Read more: Expert: Coal sinks collapsed, but the government’s recent report does not take it seriously enough
The State Council as a member, Ohisalo is himself the subject of a lawsuit, and therefore does not comment on the process in more detail.
“In many ways, this is an important precedent. On a general level, it is of course very important that there is pressure from civil society on decision-makers to make climate policy,” he states.
The background of the lawsuit initiated by environmental organizations is the weakening of the carbon sinks of restraining forests, so that the land use sector has changed from a carbon sink to a source of emissions. The reasons are, among other things, abundant felling and the slowing down of forest growth.
According to the organizations, the Finnish government has not complied with its own climate law because it has not initiated the procedure for additional measures to strengthen carbon sinks.
Because of this, the goal of carbon neutrality for the year 2035 according to the Finnish Climate Act threatens not to be realized.
Statistics Finland announced in May a quick preview of 2021 greenhouse gas emissions. According to it, the land use sector has changed from a carbon sink to a source of emissions for the first time.
According to the organizations, this should have awakened the government to act.
Minister Ohisalo assures that the government took action right away in the summer:
“We decided to prepare a land use change fee and increase money for climate-resistant forestry. In addition, we launched two investigations: into the reasons behind the collapse of the sinkholes and into the needs to reform the Forestry Act.”
Statistics Finland’s official figures and the Finnish Natural Resources Agency’s (Luke) report on the causes of sink collapse will be completed in December.
“From them, we get a more accurate picture of the scale of the additional measures needed. The board will still deal with the situation in the evening school”, says Ohisalo.
Also the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry responsible for climate actions in the land use sector Antti Kurvinen (central) wants to wait for Luke’s report to be completed in December before taking any further actions.
“I take advance information about the possible collapse of carbon sinks in forests seriously. However, the information about the collapse of forest sinkholes is based on Statistics Finland’s advance road data from May, and the actual information about the situation of forest sinkholes will be available in December,” says Kurvinen.
“I will take a closer look at Luke’s report, which tells about the situation of carbon sinks in forests based on official figures. The time for possible measures is after we have official information based on Luke’s report on the situation of forest carbon sinks,” says Kurvinen.
#Environment #Ohisalo #Finlands #climate #policy #court #important #pressure
