Now is the time to act
Climate change is a huge challenge for Finnish agriculture, forestry and environmental protection. But Ministers Paula Lehtomäki and Sirkka-Liisa Anttila refuse to despair: up here in the far north, people are hard at work mitigating climate change and adapting to it.
Climate change is principally seen as a threat in Finland, and this is as it should be, according to Minister of the Environment Paula Lehtomäki.“Certain changes are inevitable. The most tangible is the increasing occurrence of extreme weather phenomena.”
Both Lehtomäki and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sirkka-Liisa Anttila feel that the essential thing now is to focus not only on mitigating climate change but also adapting to it. The climate summit in Copenhagen next year will be important for both themes. For Finland, curbing the temperature rise to less than two degrees by the end of the present century is a key issue.
“If the temperature goes up more than that, it will dramatically change our natural environment,” says Anttila.
There’s bioenergy in those forests
The EU and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen have set Finland tough targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses and increasing the use of renewable energy. Lehtomäki and Anttila say that these targets are attainable.
“Housing and transport are the most challenging areas not covered by emissions trading. We must increase the energy efficiency of housing and consolidate urban structures,” Lehtomäki says.
Anttila says that there is a lot of bioenergy potential in the forests not being used.
“Our aim is to increase the volume of wood chips harvested from the present 3.5 million cu.m to 12 million cu.m. In agriculture, we will begin paying support to the production of biogas from liquid manure, and emissions from agricultural machinery can be cut.”
Knowledge through research
The Ministers offer a remedy to the of mitigating and adapting to climate change - research.
“Finland is leading the field in drawing up a climate and energy policy strategy. It explores cause-and-effect relationships thoroughly and is grounded in extensive research,” says Anttila.
She and Lehtomäki are both involved in the strategy process. The report on Finland’s future, with a perspective extending to 2050, is also being prepared.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is preparing an extensive adaptation report on its own administrative sector, exploring what adaptive measures will be needed in the future.
By Hasse Härkönen
Photo Laura Vuoma
