Greenpeace accuses Finnish government of climate inaction

The number of trees felled in Finnish forests in 2022 is such that the country no longer compensates for its greenhouse gas emissions.

AFP - ALESSANDRO RAMPAZZO

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

After the Swedish state, attacked last week by a collective of young people for "insufficient climate action", it is now the Finnish government which is facing a legal complaint brought by Greenpeace and the Finnish Association for the Conservation of nature.

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With our regional correspondent,

According to Greenpeace and the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, the objective of carbon neutrality that Finland has set for 2035 will not be achieved, because the forest, however omnipresent in the country, has been attacked too much by forestry.

The number of trees felled in Finland this year is such that the forest no longer compensates for the greenhouse gas emissions emitted by the country. 

Worse, the massive logging has increased them.

In question, a growing demand from the pulp industry, the rise of firewood and peat as a source of alternative energy, but also the end of wood imports from Russia.

In some parts of the south of the country, up to 90% of the forest used for industrial purposes has been cut down, but has not been replanted in the same proportions. 

For the first time in Finland's history, the forest sector has therefore become a net source of emissions, with more than 2 million tonnes of CO2 emitted in 2021, while the forest was until now a pillar of the strategy for offsetting national emissions. 

In its annual climate report, the Finnish government does not mention new measures planned to counteract deforestation.

The associations that are filing a complaint today therefore believe that, as things stand, Finland will achieve neither the objectives it has set itself in the Climate Law, nor

, which stipulates that States must increase their carbon sinks every year.

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• Environment

• Finland

• Climate

• Climate change