HELSINKI: Coal will disappear from Finland’s energy system under new climate strategy released yesterday. Within the next fifteen years coal will have no place in the Finnish energy system, according to a new climate plan released yesterday by the Finnish government which sets out a roadmap towards the country’s long-term goal of carbon neutrality. By 2030 the use of coal for energy production will be banned in Finland, while the use of imported oil for domestic needs will be cut in half.
Renewable energy will be called on to pick up the slack, with the Finnish government outlining plans for renewable energy – inlcuding the use of biofuels such as peat – to account for more than 50 per cent of energy use by the end of the 2020s. Meanwhile, the share of renewable transport fuels will rise to 40 per cent by 2030. Coal use has been in decline in Finland for several years and currently accounts for just eight per cent of total energy consumption in Finland. The pledge to phase it out completely from the energy system echoes similar promises made by a host of countries including the UK, France and, most recently, Canada.
To spur clean energy investment, the Finnish government said it will create new support programmes for renewable energy, based on the principle of technology neutrality and delivered according to “economic priorities”. The launch of the new strategy comes just a couple of weeks after the country ratified the Paris climate treaty. To date 113 parties have ratified the Paris Agreement, representing 79 per cent of global emissions.
