Parliamentary elections 2023: The Finns, the Centre party and sustainability

Good Morning,

The Finnish parliamentary elections are just around the corner. The election day is on the 2. of April, and advance voting is on March 22.–28. in Finland and 22.–25. abroad. In the upcoming weeks, Sustainability Roundup will take a closer look into Finnish parties' election platforms from a sustainability point of view.

Previous week's post Sustainability Roundup went through the currently leading parties' (Yle poll), the National Coalition Party and the Social Democratic Party, election platforms. This week's post will browse how The Centre Party and The Finns position themselves regarding sustainability questions. 

The Finns Party does not have a distinct election platform, although they have recently published several platforms on various topics, such as immigration, education, and environmental policy.

The Finns Party has launched 'a blue-white transition' that looks after national interests as an option for the green transition. Here are the most central takeaways from 'The Finns' blue-white transition in energy and climate policy in 2023' platform:

Regarding energy policy, the Finns highlight the importance of reducing prices and wants to end the emissions trading system. The national security of supply is a central goal; the platform emphasizes the importance of fossil and peat energy and hopes to remove the energy tax on peat use. Like the NCP, the Finns also mention a need for a hydrogen economy strategy.

The platform refers to sustainability as a 'green ideology' and sees that it undermines the economy and security of supply; it names national and EU climate policy and common energy market culprits for the 'current difficulties.' The platform opposes wind energy and, for this reason, stresses the need to remove and recycle solar and wind farm components at the end of their life cycle. Another remotely sustainable plank in the platform is a demand to plant 'as many trees elsewhere that have needed to fell due to the construction of wind and solar power plants.' The party strongly supports nuclear power.

The Finns see that Finland should be carbon neutral by 2050 instead of the current target of 2035. Regarding emissions reduction, the platform relies on techno-optimism and demands looser regulation, opposing, for instance, the EU initiative on buildings' energy efficiency. Regarding the forest industry, the platform opposes emission reduction and carbon sinks calculations and the EU's Nature Restoration Law. The platform supports the extraction industry and underlines national and regional interests. In this context, the platform briefly mentions the need to follow and obey environmental regulations.

Regarding sustainability themes, the Centre party's election platform deals with energy policy, agriculture, and forestry. The election platform speaks about supporting peat and bioenergy; the Centre Party emphasizes the importance of energy self-sufficiency. The election platform also advocates improving households' energy efficiency. The Centre Party joins the NCP and the Finns as it mentions the need for a hydrogen strategy. The platform supports tariffs on Russian imported energy in the EU. 

When discussing agriculture, the Centre party expectedly favors farmers' and land owners' interests over ecological sustainability. However, the platform mentions some concrete examples of sustainable actions, such as animal welfare certification, reducing food loss, and self-sufficiency in fertilizers.

Concerning Forestry, the party strongly opposes the EU's role in national forest policy. The Centre party typically looks after land owners' interests and disagrees with 'coercive conservation' in its platform, favoring voluntary protection programs METSO and HELMI instead. The platform has a plank called 'Sustainable use of forests', but the goals are strictly about economic sustainability. In addition to voluntary conservation, the election platform mentions market-based restoration and ecological compensation as concrete sustainable measures. 

The platform has a section about local nature and the importance of every man's rights. The party names improving the accessibility to local nature and increasing the number of hiking areas as their goals in the platform.

The Centre party platform subscribes to the carbon neutrality target of 2035. They also briefly mention the importance of social and regional justice in climate change mitigation. Despite skepticism towards the EU's role in forest policy, the party supports the Union's initiatives in developing circular economy regulation and Finland's role in the EU's Arctic policy. 

It is interesting to notice that the Finns wish to postpone the climate neutrality target by 15 years while the Centre subscribes to the current target of 2035. However, it seems unlikely that the 2035 goal could be achieved with the Centre party's campaign promises.

Let's jump into this week's major headlines.

EU's Carbon Allowance (ETS) price development

UK's Carbon Allowance (ETS) price development

European Parliament | Parliament adopts new carbon sinks goal that increases EU 2030 climate ambition. The updated target aims to increase carbon sinks in the EU by 15 %, which includes nationally binding targets (2030) for all Member States and improved governance and monitoring including penalties for non-compliance.

HS | The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused extensive environmental damage – Russia must be held accountable, says Ohisalo. The military activity has harmed the environment by creating massive amounts of harmful waste, such as asbestos, and damaged up to 20 % of Ukrainian conservation sites. 

Aljazeera | More than 220 killed by record-breaking Cyclone Freddy. Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit the coast of Southern Africa for a second time last weekend, bringing its total death toll to more than 220 people in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar.

European Commission | Commission adopts Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework to further support transition towards net-zero economy. The initiative can be seen as a response to the US Inflation Redution Act, as the Commission acknowledges a risk of investments being diverted away from Europe. The framework enables Member States to temporarily support their national industry and businesses in renewable energy and low carbon investments.  

The Guardian | Scientists warn of ‘phosphogeddon’ as critical fertiliser shortages loom. Experts fear that our misuse of phosphorus could lead to deadly shortages of fertilisers that would disrupt global food production. At the same time, phosphate fertiliser washed from fields – together with sewage inputs into rivers, lakes and seas – is giving rise to widespread algal blooms and creating aquatic dead zones that threaten fish stocks.

Aljazeera | The UN’s climate handbook for a ‘liveable’ future. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) started a weeklong meeting to distil six landmark reports totalling 10,000 pages prepared by more than 1,000 scientists over the last six years. Hitting the 2015 Paris Agreement temperature goals will require a massive reduction in fossil fuel use and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, the reports say.

The Guardian | PFAS, also known as toxic ‘forever chemicals’ found in toilet paper around the world. All toilet paper from across the globe checked for toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” contained the compounds, and the waste flushed down toilets and sent to sewage treatment plants probably creates a significant source of water pollution, new research has found.

BBC | UN buys huge ship to avert catastrophic oil spill off Yemen. More than a million barrels of crude oil have been sitting on a decaying supertanker in the Red Sea for several years. Fears of the vessel breaking apart or exploding and risking one of the worst oil spills in recent memory led the UN to star the operation, estimated to cost $129 M of which $75 M has been received and another $20 M has been pledged.

HS | Parliamentary election panel: all Finnish parties, apart from the Finns, support protecting 10 % of forests in Southern Finland. Most of the protected areas currently reside in Northern Finland, where forest growth is slower, and thus forestry is less lucrative.

HS | Update from the state of the Baltic Sea: Marine research vessel Aranda detected record-high phosphorous levels at its annual expedition. Nutrient inputs from land have decreased, but internal loading continues to cause severe eutrophication.

Yle | Meat, milk and egg production dropped in Finland last year as inflation forced farm closures. Some of price pressures on farmers were related to the Ukraine war, but others began well before last year's Russian attack, says the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

HS | The supreme administrative court dismisses nature conservationists' appeal on the Helsinki Metropolitan Area regional plan. The conservationists appealed against a train depot at the border of Kirkkonummi and Espoo.

Yle | The City of Lahti, Sitra plan a pilot project in sustainability. The initiative aims for a more holistic scope in environmental issues instead of focusing only on climate neutrality targets.

STT | Development plan 2060 in Espoo: the city government has approved guiding goals for the new development plan. The goals include sustainable city development, better traffic connections, and climate-smart city planning.

HS | Finland needs a nature law, sustainability scientists say. The suggested law would be more extensive than the current nature conservation act; it would regulate the impacts societal functions and economic activity have on nature. The researchers also suggest reforming the waste act to improve the implementation of the circular economy.

Reuters | EU parliament backs law aimed at saving energy by renovating buildings. Buildings across Europe could be renovated to cut emissions and save energy after the European Parliament on Tuesday approved a bill that aims to lower households' energy bills and wean EU countries off Russian gas faster.

HS | Norwegian Blastr Green Steel plans a new steel plant investment in Northern Norway. The company announced in January its plans to found a steel plant in Inkoo. The investment in Norway would supply raw materials for the Finnish plant expected to start production in 2026. The company uses emission-free hydroelectric power in its iron ore beneficiation process.

Reuters | UK pension funds target BP and Shell directors over climate goals. Two of the UK's largest pension schemes will vote against the renewal of top directors at British Petroleum and Shell at their annual meetings unless both companies strengthen commitments to tackling carbon emissions.

STT | Etla Economic Research report: Finland risks reaching the 2035 carbon neutrality target if it fails to strengthen its carbon sinks. Including the land use sector in the emissions trading system could be one way to assist reach the goal.

A new additive in cow feedstuffs can reduce methane emissions in dairy production by 30 %. The ongoing research project surveys the possibilities and challenges of using the Bovaer additive in dairy cattle feed. The research project is jointly conducted by the Natural Resource Institute, the University of Helsinki, Valio, and A-rehu. (HS, Natural Resource Institute)

Australia’s massive wildfires shredded the ozone layer. Massive wildfires that raged across southeast Australia in 2019–20 unleashed chemicals that chewed through the ozone layer, expanding and prolonging the ozone hole. A study, published in Nature, describes how smoke combined with chlorine-containing molecules in the stratosphere — remnants of chemicals that are now banned — to cause the destruction. (Nature)

Game-changing high-performance semiconductor material could help slash heat emissions. Researchers at West Virginia University have engineered a material with the potential to dramatically cut the amount of heat power plants release into the atmosphere. (Science Daily)

Picture of the week: 

A Look to the Future, by Charlie Page is the winner of this years's the British Wildlife Photography awards