A customer adding minced meat into their shopping cart in Helsinki in July 2023. An analysis by the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) shows that the climate-heating emissions of households varied considerably between municipalities, from 7.7 tonnes to 12.5 tonnes per capita, in 2019. Meat consumption contributes to the individual carbon footprint particularly in rural areas. (Mikko Stig – Lehtikuva)
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THE CLIMATE EMISSIONS of Finnish households may have fallen between 2015 and 2019 but remain well off the level required to curtail global heating to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, reveals an analysis of consumption-based emissions in municipalities across Finland by the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke).
The changes in emissions varied substantially from one municipality to the next over the five-year period – from a drop of 29 per cent to an increase of 18 per cent.
The consumption-based emissions of municipal residents ranged between 7.7 tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalents in Mäntsälä and Raasepori and 12.5 tonnes in Hailuoto in 2019. The emissions were at least 10 tonnes also in seven large cities: 11.4 tonnes in Oulu, 10.2 tonnes in Vaasa and Helsinki, 10.1 tonnes in Kuopio, and 10.0 tonnes in Tampere, Jyväskylä and Lahti.
Overall, the consumption-based emissions of municipalities fell by 4.4 per cent over in 2015–2019.
Over four-fifths, or 82.3 per cent, of the emissions were attributable to household consumption, 12.0 per cent to municipal procurement and 5.8 per cent to municipal investments. The individual carbon footprint should be reduced to 2.5 tonnes by 2030 and further to 0.7 tonnes by 2050 to limit global heating in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
“Finland is still a long way from this,” Santtu Karhinen, a senior researcher at Syke, commented to Helsingin Sanomat in December.
Household emissions are divided into four basic components: food, housing, transport, and the purchase of goods and services – with the three first responsible a lion’s share of the emissions.
In Finland, the analysis shows, emissions from food and goods purchases decreased but emissions from housing increased in 2015–2019. Emissions from housing are determined largely by the heating solution, the emissions being higher in municipalities that use peat and fossil fuels – both major
Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
