“Transport, heating and meat-eating are the key climate problems in Finland”, views Kai Mykkänen, the Finnish Minister of the Interior.[1]
Minister Mykkänen, in an alarming blog on “Puheenvuoro”[2], writes that climate change is not an issue of the future generations. „We are not talking about our grandchildren!… We are close to witnessing hundreds of millions of people become climate refugees and how it will have an impact on the lives of a growing number of us”, writes Mykkänen.
The Finnish minister also referred to the most recent report of the IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). This research group admitted, with high confidence, that the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees for global warming will be breached as soon as in 2030–2052”, he stressed.
According to Mykkänen, in the current situation the world must invest into nuclear power and artificial absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Nordic states are good examples of innovative and clean generation of power, mainly carbon-dioxide-free. However, the Finns still see some room for further reductions. ” Our challenges are eating, heating and transport,” concludes Mykkänen.
Whether Fennovoima[3] builds a nuclear power plant in Hanhikivi or whether Finland increases its wind power capacity two- or threefold, on the other hand, will not be decisive for our climate efforts. The bigger climate questions for us are can we halve the amount of heat produced by burning fuels in the Helsinki region and will Finns switch to electric cars as soon as next decade rather than the 2030s,” wrote Mykkänen.
The minister also pointed to rather an unusual issue, which not everyone associates with climate change, namely, meat consumption. Dietary change may be key to attempts to limit carbon dioxide emissions in food production. As a result, the climate change battle in Finland may move to dining plates.
[1] http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/15887-cars-heating-and-meat-eating-are-main-climate-problems-in-finland-says-mykkaenen.html
