Climate panel: Finland should rapidly reduce deforestation and buy more electric cars

The use of Finland’s forests must change to meet climate targets. Delays in other climate actions will increase the need to limit logging.

Achieving Finland’s climate targets depends on the amount of deforestation.

This is the assessment of the Finnish Climate Panel, the government’s climate advisor, in a recent report.

Finland will not be carbon neutral in 2035 if deforestation is not significantly reduced.

Looking should be reduced by up to 11-16 % each year.

According to the climate panel, the achievement of the Finnish carbon neutrality target culminates in land use, ie agriculture and forestry, whose climate action has not been effectively promoted.

Changes in agriculture and forestry must be made to prevent climate action too much, for example, on the road to traffic reductions, the panel states. The use of forests must change so that Finland will achieve national and commonly agreed climate targets in the EU, the panel continues.

Delays increase the need to limit logging

According to the panel calculations, the felling volumes of our forests must be weighed into 61-64 million cubic meters per year to balance the carbon sinks of the forests in relation to Finland’s emissions.

This means a reduction of about 11-16 % compared to the 2023 levels. At that time, 72.7 million cubic meters of wood were beaten in our forests.

The forest industry’s material would not be reduced in the same proportion as the proportion of wood directed to energy production is decreasing.

According to him, there are hardly any alternatives to reducing logging.

There are also a number of other effective ways to strengthen forest carbon sinks and to curb forest loss.

Only full electric cars on the road

Fossil emissions have been reduced relatively quickly because of the use of impressive guidance and energy transition has progressed rapidly, the panel says.

Pure electricity production also offers a competitive advantage for Finnish industry and attracts new investments.

Road transport emissions can be reduced by increasing the fastest distribution obligation to distribute renewable fuels and by electrification of the fleet.

According to the panel, consistent financial guidance and communication are needed to speed up electrification, so that only full electric cars are purchased as both new and used.

EU obligations weigh on the economy

The utilization of all climate action is already in a hurry, as Finland’s carbon sink debt has had time to expand into massive dimensions in relation to the agreed obligations in the EU. The debt also \”matures\” for the first time this year.

The debt comes from the EU Climate Act and the Lulucf Regulation, where Finland is committed to maintaining the carbon sink in its forests in a certain size.

During the first obligation period, between 2021 and 2025, the land use sector should be calculated with zero emission. However, the deficit accumulated in Finland in five years is about 110 million tonnes.

If Finland is unable to reach its obligations or fulfill them with flexible and emission units purchased, the deferred emissions will be transferred to the so -called burden distribution sector. There, on the other hand, the costs are higher than in land use.

According to the panel, Finland can still achieve its obligations if logging is well modeled to well below 70 million cubic meters per year and other actions in the land use sector will be deployed without delay.

If you wish, you can also contact Tuomo.bjorksten@yle.fi. We read all contacts, but we cannot guarantee everyone a personal answer.