News

On 29 October, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Kai Mykkänen signed two Memorandums of Understanding promoting Finland–China cooperation on the environment and the circular economy.

Financing is needed to preserve biodiversity, both in Finland and globally. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation, the EU Biodiversity Strategy and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework call for measures that will require evermore financing, especially from the private sector.

Finland promotes Environmental Security in war-ravaged Ukraine. Minister of Climate and the Environment of Finland Kai Mykkänen and Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Svitlana Hrynchuk agreed on stronger cooperation in the forest, nature, meteorology and energy sectors.

The Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) will convene in Cali, Colombia on 21 October–1 November 2024. The main objective of COP16 is to agree on the implementation of the global biodiversity targets and the related monitoring. Finland’s delegation will be led by Minister of Climate and the Environment Kai Mykkänen.

The EU environment ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Monday 14 October. The topics include the negotiation objectives of the EU for both the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in October and UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in November. The ministers will also exchange views on the progress of the UN Plastics Treaty and on the EU Chemicals Strategy. Minister of Climate and the Environment Kai Mykkänen will represent Finland in Luxembourg.   

On 9 October 2024, the Ministerial Committee on Economic Policy discussed and supported the new outlines for the ownership policy concerning Metsähallitus for 2024–2027. Besides the reconciliation of different needs, new objectives have also been included. Among the topics concerned are the economic benefit from the operations of Metsähallitus to the State and promotion of biodiversity and renewable energy.

The Government’s aim is to create clean economic growth in Finland and replace pollution-generating solutions around the world through technology exports. The Government will boost the work on the positive climate handprint together with business and industry.

The European Commission gave a proposal to move the wolf from the list of strictly protected species to protected species in December 2023. On Wednesday 25 September, the EU Member States outlined that the adaptation of the conservation status will proceed to be decided by the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention.

The Government has set the target to promote voluntary carbon markets. The aim is to create long-term business opportunities related to carbon sequestration, which would also contribute to Finland’s efforts to reach the climate targets.

Cities and municipalities are in a key position in terms of reaching the climate targets, both in Finland and globally. Finland has joined the UN CHAMP initiative to support the climate work of cities and regions.