Today, on 20 October, the ministers of the coastal states around the Baltic Sea responsible for marine protection and the European Commission adopted the updated Baltic Sea Action Plan. The Baltic Sea coastal states and EU have implemented the Action Plan since 2007. The Action Plan sets down the common objectives and agreed measures until 2030.

The first phase of a meeting of parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity provided good prospects for further negotiations aimed at halting biodiversity loss. Hosted by China in Kunming and partly arranged as a virtual event, the main achievement of the meeting was a unified message concerning the level of ambition in necessary measures. The Declaration stresses the need for swift action in all areas of society to halt the loss of biodiversity.

The Climate Policy Roundtable will hold its 11th meeting on Wednesday 13 October. The meeting will focus on the low-carbon circular economy agreement, which aims to boost the achievement of the objectives set in the Circular Economy Programme completed in spring 2021.

The Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 starts today on 11 October in Kunming, China. The aim is to agree on targets and actions to halt the global biodiversity loss. Actual decisions are expected in the second part of the Conference of the Parties, which will be held from 25 April to 8 May 2022.

The Finnish Navy will launch a diving operation in the Archipelago Sea with the aim to empty the fuel tanks of shipwreck Beatris of oil. The shipwreck could become a source of oil spills in the near future. One of the aims of the programme to enhance the effectiveness of water protection, coordinated by the Ministry of the Environment, is to locate and clean up hazardous shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea. Before this, three shipwrecks that may cause risks have been cleaned up.

On 6 October, the EU environment and climate ministers will meet in Luxembourg to discuss the EU climate package (Fit for 55), the EU Forest Strategy and the negotiating objectives of the EU for the Glasgow Climate Change Conference. Finland’s representative at the meeting will be Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Krista Mikkonen.

Measures with an impact of more than EUR 100 million are considered significant for the national economy. Nine major operators in the real estate and construction sector advocated for such a measure by organising a joint challenge campaign ‘Away with Pens’.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has studied how new apartments have changed in 15 years. Now the buildings are safer, healthier and more energy-efficient. Growing focus on small apartments has responded to the demand, but due to the smaller floor area homes have become more difficult to adapt to different needs.

The Government is adopting a single email suffix in stages during the remainder of 2021. Once the harmonisation process is complete, the email addresses of all staff members at the ministries will end in ‘gov.fi’. The Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of the Environment will adopt the new suffix on 6 September 2021.

On Wednesday 25 August, the Climate Policy Roundtable discussed the EU’s Fit for 55 package, which presents the means that will enable the EU to reduce its emissions by at least 55% by 2030.