Parliamentary elections 2023: The Greens vs The Left Alliance on 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 previous weeks, Sustainability Roundup has taken a closer look into Finnish parties' election platforms from a sustainability point of view.

Last week Sustainability Roundup went through the Finns' and the Centre party's election platforms. This week's post will concentrate on the current 5th and 6th largest parties, the Left Alliance's and the Greens' election programs.

Both parties, The Left Alliance and The Greens promote expanding nature protection and restoration of at least 30 % of degraded terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Both parties propose a new Nature Act and suggest tightening the requirements in the Mining Act to consider ecological and social aspects more exhaustively. Both parties share a similar vision on agriculture: according to the Left Alliance, subsidies need a reform so that they reward producers for carbon sequestration, improving soil fertility and the diversity of agricultural nature, and increasing plant-based production. In addition, The Greens highlight self-sufficiency and organic production. Both parties' election platforms discuss improving animal rights, for example banning fur farming and cage rearing where animals have restricted movement.

The Greens and the Left Alliance strongly emphasize the importance of a fair green transition. Just transition means that social aspects must be taken into account when planning green transition policies. Also, both parties strongly call for national energy self-sufficiency, emphasis on renewable energy. Regarding nuclear power, both parties support utilizing the existing nuclear power plants and investigating the operational preconditions of small nuclear reactors. An interesting detail is that the Greens go further than the Left Alliance by showing the green light to the extension of the existing power reactors if the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority considers them safe. The Greens have a history of fierce resistance towards nuclear power.

How do the parties' election programs differ? The Greens' program considers a more extensive array of sustainable policy instruments than The Left Alliance. These include technological carbon sequestration, emphasizing nature-based solutions in climate work, and acknowledging Finland's activities' effects abroad, for instance, Finland's carbon handprint. Also, the Greens go more into detail regarding protecting endangered species. However, the Left Alliance takes animal rights issues further as it proposes enshrining the fundamental rights of animals in the Constitution.

To conclude, the Greens' approach to sustainability has more market-based features, which seems logical regarding how the two parties align in the left-right political spectrum. It is also noteworthy that within the Left Alliance, there is more variability in how the candidates value sustainability versus economic and social policy issues. The Greens, on the other hand, are more homogenous in their strong emphazis on sustainability matters.

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

EU's Carbon Allowance (ETS) price development

UK's Carbon Allowance (ETS) price development

IPCC | The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a synthesis report on climate change. The report provides an overview of the state of knowledge on the science of climate change, emphasizing new results since the Fifth Assessment Report, published in 2014. Although painting a grim picture of the current climate trajectory, it also highlights pathways to avoid these intensifying risks.

HS | UN holds a conference on the water crisis on 22.–24. March – the previous water conference was 40 years ago. The agenda of the UN meeting is to bring the water crisis to policy discussion and publish a new action plan, Water Action Agenda.

BBC | UN warns against 'vampiric' global water use. A United Nations report has warned of a looming global water crisis, stating that "scarcity is becoming endemic" because of overconsumption and pollution, while global warming will increase seasonal water shortages in both areas with abundant water and those already strained. Its publication comes before the first major UN water summit since 1977.

Reuters | Somalia's drought killed 43,000 last year, half under five. After five consecutive failed rainy seasons, half of Somalia's 17 million people are in urgent need of aid, the United Nations has said, although parts of the country avoided a famine declaration last year that some experts had been expecting.

European Commission | Commission proposes common criteria against greenwashing and misleading environmental claims. The proposal states that companies must verify their 'green claims' independently and prove them with scientific evidence. The absence of common rules for companies making voluntary green claims has led to ‘greenwashing' and created an uneven playing field in the EU's market, to the disadvantage of genuinely sustainable companies.

Reuters | EU toughens up draft law on environmental crimes. European Union lawmakers on Tuesday toughened up a draft law to crack down on illegal timber trade and other crimes against the environment, with sanctions that include imprisonment for up to 10 years for the most serious offences.

Reuters | SVB's collapse has sustainability-related consequences: After the Silicon Valley Banks collapsed, its climate tech clients face humbling funding questions. For years, SVB was a lender of choice for climate technology startups keen to tap specialized support for early-stage companies. After the bank's collapse, entrepreneurs may face higher finance costs wherever they next choose to bank.

Earth Hour | The annual Earth Hour is on this week's Saturday. Since 2007, the global phenomenon has been a symbolic event to show collective support for the planet.

HS | The current laws are insufficient to halt biodiversity loss -Ministry of the Environment review. An entirely new Nature Act is needed. Also, existing nature-related laws need reforming to address the fragile state of endangered habitats and species.

Yle | Several thousand people participated in Nature March in Helsinki city centre on Saturday. Smaller demonstrations were also held across Finland, in Jyväskylä and Tampere.

HS | Finnish political parties give their comments on the IPCC report.

WWF | Survey: all Finnish parties are ready to maintain at least the current level of funding in voluntary protection and restoration programs. Other themes that received most of the parties' support were conserving carbon sinks and supporting climate-friendly diets and agricultural practices.

Aljazeera | Greta Thunberg, climate activists' class action lawsuit against the Swedish government can proceed. Thunberg and 600 other young activists in a group called Aurora sued the Swedish state in November, claiming it had to do more to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to live up to the European Convention on Human Rights. On Tuesday, Nacka District Court said the lawsuit could go ahead after the group made adjustments to the claim.

Reuters | Danish fund to protest against Nordea's climate goals at the bank's annual general meeting. Danish pension fund AkademikerPension will not vote in favour of Nordea's chair at the bank's annual general meeting today, in protest at what the fund described as the bank's "deficient" climate plan.

Dagens Nyheter | Swedish emission compensation projects abroad do not qualify for Sweden's part in the EU's climate goals. The government has invested SEK 450 million in emission reductions in other countries, such as Ghana, the Dominican Republic, and Nepal, to compensate for domestic emissions. Until 2020, supplementary compensation measures were allowed, but this option is no longer available – due to the extensive criticism of climate compensation in other countries. Research has found ambiguity whether compensation projects abroad sequestrate carbon as much as claimed.

Aktuell Hållbaret | The Swedish government is going to present the basis for its climate action. The climate action plan will be published next month, marking an important milestone in the current government's work on environmental policy.

Maaseudun Tulevaisuus | A majority of Finns ready to pay extra for domestic food if it would secure sufficient livelihood for farmers -survey.

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.

Reuters | Brazil evicts miners from Yanomami territory, prepares for more removals. Brazil has ousted almost all illegal gold miners from the Yanomami territory, its largest indigenous reservation, and will remove miners from six more reserves this year.

Reuters | Netherlands aims to construct an offshore green hydrogen facility in the North Sea. The facility will have the capacity to produce 500 megawatt of green hydrogen per year and is expected to become operational in 2031.

STT | Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) published a data window of green transition investments in Finland. The data shows that domestic green investments are currently valued at €15 bln.

STT | Construction company Den reduced its carbon footprint, even as construction volume increased. The reduction in the carbon footprint is mainly based on the energy efficiency of houses sold continuing to improve, the increase in renewable sources of energy in the completed projects, and the increased share of renewable energy in the company’s production.

STT | Employment pension company Elo pledges to be carbon neutral in all its directly owned properties by 2027.

Net loss of biomass predicted for tropical biomes in a changing climate. Tropical ecosystems store over half of the world’s aboveground live carbon as biomass, and water availability plays a key role in its distribution. Although precipitation and temperature are shifting across the tropics, their effect on biomass and carbon storage remains uncertain. The researchers used empirical relationships between climate and aboveground biomass content to show that the contraction of humid regions, and expansion of those with intense dry periods, results in substantial carbon loss from the neotropics. Under a low emission scenario this could cause a net reduction of aboveground live carbon 6.8–12% from 1950–2100. Under a high emissions scenario net carbon losses could double across the tropics, 13.3–20.1% from 1950–2100. The contraction of humid regions in South America accounts for ~40% of this change. Climate mitigation strategies could prevent half of the carbon losses and help maintain the natural tropical net carbon sink. (Nature Climate Change)

Environmental and nutritional Life Cycle Assessment of novel foods in meals as transformative food for the future. Sustainable diets have a cruicial role in mitigating further anthropogenic climate change and meeting future health and sustainability goals globally. Given that current diets need to change significantly, novel/future foods (e.g., insect meal, cultured meat, microalgae, mycoprotein) present options for protein alternatives in future diets with lower total environmental impacts than animal source foods. The aim of HELSUS Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science research was to compare the environmental impacts and nutrient composition of meals including novel/future foods with those of vegan and omnivore meals. The results show that substituting animal-source foods with certain novel/future foods may provide nutritious meals with substantial environmental benefits for sustainably transforming future food systems. (Science of The Total Environment)

Recycling: Researchers separate cotton from polyester in blended fabric. Researchers at North Carolina State University found they could separate blended cotton and polyester fabric using enzymes – nature's tools for speeding chemical reactions. Ultimately, they hope their findings will lead to a more efficient way to recycle the fabric's component materials, thereby reducing textile waste. (Science Daily; Resources, Environment and Sustainability)

Picture of the week: 

Finnish investments in green transition on the map (The Confederation of Finnish Industries)