HS Interview | Finland does not meet the EU’s climate goal, but that is not the most important thing, says Environment and Climate Minister Kai Mykkänen

Finland does not achieve the EU’s 2021–2025 emissions targets in the land use sector, says the new Minister of Environment and Climate Kai Mykkänen (cook).

“[Sanna] Marin’s (sd) the government had ambitious goals for the land use sector, but the actions were lacking. We were left with a sink debt of more than 50 million carbon tons,” says Mykkänen.

“We don’t throw gloves on the counter, but take steps to increase the carbon sequestration of forests. But they are not enough in two years.”

The lack of carbon sinks that bind emissions may have to be made up for by buying sink units from other countries. The prices of the units are secret for the time being.

“Units can be acquired potentially very cost-effectively. It can be one part of the solution,” says Mykkänen.

Earlier I estimate According to the report, falling short of the sink target could cost Finland up to billions of euros.

According to the EU regulation, emissions from agriculture and forestry and other land use should be in balance with carbon sinks in the years 2021–2025.

“We need to find a solution where the EU does not build the goals for 2030 and 2040 in such a way that the feeling of injustice in Finland increases because we are made to pay while Finland’s forests are a sink much bigger than ours in the EU right now,” says Mykkänen.

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“That’s where the importance of industry is crucial: carbon sequestration, large steel mills and others are so much bigger than what is talked about as surplus or deficit in annual EU obligations,” Mykkänen says.

In Mykkänen’s words, the central climate action of the government program is “plugging the factory chimneys”.

The government intends to reduce the carbon emissions of the energy and forest industries in particular with the help of carbon sequestration technology installed in the chimneys of factories.

“This is already being done in Oslo, for example, and Stockholm’s central district heating plant is undergoing a half-billion dollar project to switch to carbon dioxide recovery. The coal is stored in the Norwegian gas fields, and it is planned to be used later to make synthetic products.”

Carbon sequestration is supposed to reduce Finland’s carbon dioxide emissions by about six million carbon tons per year.

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According to the minister, carbon sequestration could also be made mandatory later.

Companies is encouraged to switch to carbon sequestration by means of the so-called negative emissions auction.

In practice, therefore, the state would pay the factories for sequestering carbon emissions. According to Mykkänen, the auction can be financed from the 160 million euro budget set aside for clean transition projects.

“We need demonstration projects. The essential question is how the recovery appears on the companies’ balance sheets. Do they get, for example, sink units worth money, which can be sold to those in need,” says Mykkänen.

According to the minister, carbon sequestration could also be made mandatory later.

“An obligation tied to the target year is set, which applies to large institutions. It would be unreasonable to say that ten billion devices have to be installed next year, but there is a 12-year transition period until 2035. I believe that it is quite realistic”, describes Mykkänen.

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“If one authority grants a permit, and then another complains about it, a foreign investor can have a very strange feeling.”

Also According to Mykkänen, the government’s second most important climate action is related to factories.

The government wants more hydrogen investments in Finland. According to Mykkänen, they are sought with “SSS tactics”, i.e. investing in electricity production, transmission and smoothness.

“If we are superior in all of these compared to competitor countries, Finland will be the first to realize the nuclear investments in the hydrogen economy, which, for example, are pending in steel,” says Mykkänen.

Hydrogen investments to attract, the government aims to double Finland’s electricity production in 15 years.

According to Mykkänen, the abundant supply of electricity and hydrogen creates the conditions for cleaner steel production.

For example, SSAB’s Raahe steel mill currently produces emissions of approximately four million tons of carbon dioxide per year, because coal and coke are used in the steel manufacturing process.

Mykkänen wants coal and coke to be replaced by electricity and hydrogen.

Investments we also want to increase by streamlining permit processes.

“The hardest way to streamline licensing is to combine licensing and control authorities into one national agency,” says Mykkänen.

Nowadays, for example, the environmental permit is issued by the regional administrative agency (avi), and compliance with the permit conditions is monitored by ely centers.

The government plans to combine the regional administrative agencies, the environment-related licensing and control tasks of ely centers, and the social and health sector licensing and control agency Valvira into one new agency.

Agencies planned the merger last time Juha Sipilä (central) government.

At the time, environmental organizations and the Supreme Administrative Court (KHO) criticized the plan, because with the merger of the agencies, the ely centers would lose their right to appeal in permit processes.

Environmental organizations by the removal of the right of appeal from the ely centers that supervise the public interest would have shifted the responsibility of defending the public interest and the environment to the organizations.

“If we want to jump into a new kind of technology and industry, the smoothness of the permit processes is a key competitive advantage. If one authority grants a permit, and then another complains about it, a foreign investor can have a very strange feeling,” says Mykkänen.

Correction 22.7. at 6.31 am: Corrected the point from the beginning of the story “Finland no achieve the EU’s 2012-2023 emission targets” for the years 2021-2025. 6:45 a.m.: The Raahe steel plant produces emissions of about four million, not four, tons of carbon dioxide per year.