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The EU environment ministers will meet in Brussels on Tuesday 16 December. The ministers will exchange views on the new EU Bioeconomy Strategy published by the Commission on 27 November. The agenda also includes conclusions on the EU’s 8th environment action programme. Minister of Climate and the Environment Sari Multala will represent Finland at the meeting.

The seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly UNEA, the world’s highest-level decision-making body for matters related to the environment, will take place in Nairobi, Kenya from 8 to 12 December 2025. The theme of the session is ‘Advancing sustainable solutions for a resilient planet’. Finland’s UNEA delegation in Nairobi will be led by Minister of Climate and the Environment Sari Multala.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of the Environment have begun legislative drafting to ensure consistent and predictable application of the obligations under the Birds Directive. The need to amend the Forest Act and the Nature Conservation Act stems from a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union on felling trees during the period of bird breeding and rearing.

Finnish Biodiversity Award 2023–2024 was given to an actor that had done something inspiring to halt biodiversity loss. The winner of the competition was Crowdsorsa mobile game that has already helped fight against invasive alien species in Finland on a total of 4 million square metres. Honourable mentions were awarded to the cities of Kauniainen and Vantaa. The prizes were awarded by Minister of Climate and the Environment Sari Multala.

Three separate studies examine the development of nature value markets from the perspectives of sellers who generate nature values, buyers and intermediary organisations. According to the studies, nature value markets are an important means of increasing private funding for nature action, but their large-scale establishment requires clear rules and additional incentives.

The Climate Change Conference COP30 in Belém, Brazil ended on Saturday evening Finnish time, after having continued almost 24 hours longer than planned. The political commitment achieved was modest relative to the objectives of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. However, in the negotiations during the last night the EU managed to include points in the resolutions that will ensure that the work on energy transition and phasing out fossil fuels will continue, even if this will be less binding than the EU and Finland had hoped. The gap between the targets and the emission reductions needed to achieve these is also mentioned in the resolutions.

With a budget of almost EUR 28 million, the ACWA LIFE project is one of the most significant projects during the history of water resources management in Finland. The eight-year project to be started in the beginning of 2026 will improve the status of waters by enhancing river basin management planning and actions based on this in five areas.

The Forest Biodiversity Programme for Southern Finland METSO has established its position as part of nature conservation in Finland. The programme has developed a high-quality network of protected areas that already covers almost 100,000 hectares. The closing seminar of the programme period 2008–2025 presented some of the success stories of the widely appreciated METSO Programme.

Minister Multala: It is most important that we were able to reach an agreement, even if many of the details remained to be decided later.

The world countries will convene at the Climate Change Conference COP30 in Belém, Brazil on 10–21 November. The countries are required to update their Nationally Determined Contributions every five years, and the next round of submissions is due just ahead the conference.