Environmental damage legislation

The prevention of accidents and other pollution incidents is regulated by maritime transport legislation, chemicals legislation and nuclear energy legislation, in addition to the environmental legislation.

The liability to restore polluted environments primarily falls on the party responsible for causing damage. By virtue of the Environmental Protection Act, a supervisory authority may initiate measures to restore a polluted environment. The responsibility for cleaning polluted soil and groundwater reserves is specified separately in section 14 of the Environmental Protection Act.

Compensation for personal and property damage as well as the costs of response and restoration work, is governed by the Act on Compensation for Environmental Damage, instead of the general legislation concerning compensation. In addition to this, statutory environmental damage insurance is used to compensate for environmental damage as specified in the Act on Compensation for Environmental Damage (737/1994). Section 10 of the Maritime Act is applied for compensation for oil pollution caused by ships, whereas the Nuclear Liability Act is applied in relation to nuclear damage.

The EU Environmental Liability Directive on the prevention and remediation of environmental damage (2004/35/EC) has been enforced through the Act on the Remediation of Certain Environmental Damages, amendments to the Nature Conservation Act, the Environmental Protection Act, the Water Act and the Gene Technology Act, as well as the Government Decree on the Remediation of Certain Environmental Damages.

• Finlex: Environmental Protection Act (527/2014)
• Finlex: Act on Environmental Protection in Maritime Transport (1672/2009)
• Finlex: Act on Compensation for Environmental Damage (737/1994)
• Finlex: Environmental Damage Insurance Act  (81/1998)
• Finlex: Environmental Damage Insurance Decree (47/2015)
• Finlex: Act on the Remediation of Certain Environmental Damages (383/2009)
• Finlex: Nature Conservation Act (1096/1996)
• Finlex: Water Act (587/2011)
• Finlex: Gene Technology Act (377/1995)
• Finlex: Government Decree on the Remediation of Certain Environmental Damages (713/2009)
• Finlex (in Finnish): Act on the Prevention of Marine Pollution (1415/1994)
• Finlex: Nuclear Energy Act (990/1987)
• Finlex: Nuclear Liability Act (484/1972)
• Finlex: Rescue Act (379/2011)
• Finlex (in Finnish): Act on the Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (1406/2004)