News

Finland is preparing a country pavilion for the next UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Belém, Brazil, from 10 to 21 November 2025. The Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs support the preparation of the pavilion in cooperation with companies, municipalities, universities and non-governmental organisations.

The EU environment ministers aim for a general approach to reduce microplastic pollution by curbing plastic pellet losses. The ministers will also discuss the Regulation on end-of-life vehicles and the EU’s 2040 climate target. Finland’s representative at the meeting is State Secretary Mika Nykänen.

The UN Climate Change Conference COP29 reached an agreement on the new climate finance goal (New Collective Quantified Goal, NCQG) of USD 300 billion and a total NCQG of USD 1,300 billion. Decisions on the global monitoring framework for the process to phase out fossil fuels were left to the future climate conferences.

Pressures to reach an understanding will be mounting when the representatives of the UN Member States convene in Busan, Republic of Korea, on 25 November–1 December for the last scheduled negotiations on the Global Plastics Treaty. Finland’s Chief Negotiator Tuulia Toikka from the Ministry of the Environment expects that the negotiations will be challenging.

The world states will convene at the Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan on 11–22 November. The aim is to decide on a new common climate finance target. A faster energy transition will be needed as the countries are preparing to set new emission reduction targets during next year.

UN Biodiversity Conference COP16 ended with a skinny agreement on Saturday morning after having gone into overtime. A benefit-sharing mechanism for digital information on genetic resources (the Cali Fund) was established and the role of indigenous peoples was strengthened, but no understanding was reached on monitoring the implementation of biodiversity targets or mobilising finances. As the meeting dragged on and some of the negotiators had to go home, there was no quorum to make decisions.

Minister of Climate and the Environment Kai Mykkänen stresses that, to reach the global targets, China must be more strongly involved in the environmental and climate work.

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.