PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The goal of Finlands National Energy and Climate Strategy (NECS) is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially by promoting cost-efficient transition to carbon-free, clean and renewable energy; and improving energy efficiency. While Finland expects to meet the EUs 2020 climate and energy targets, according to the basic scenario of the NECS, novel solutions will be needed to achieve the targets in the 2030 EU climate and energy framework for sectors of the economy outside the EU Emissions Trading System (non-ETS sectors). The target set by the framework is a 39% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2005 in non-ETS sectors. Mitigating carbon dioxide emissions from peat soils is expected to be particularly challenging.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE-IP CANEMURE-FINLAND project aims to make a major contribution to the implementation of Finnish climate change policy, as outlined in the NECS and Finlands medium-term climate change policy plan for 2018-24. It will work with seven Finnish regions - Uusimaa, Southwest Finland (Varsinais-Suomi), Satakunta, Pijt-Hme, Tampere region, South Karelia and Northern Ostrobothnia and 39 municipalities that between them cover one-third of Finnish territory and more than two-thirds of its population. These include 12 forerunner (so-called HINKU) municipalities that are committed to an 80% greenhouse emission reduction compared to 2007 emissions in their territories by 2030. They will act as an example to others and a catalyst for action elsewhere in Finland and the EU. The project plans to achieve the following specific objectives:
creating smart low carbon mobility measures;reducing greenhouse gas emissions of agriculture and forests from organic soils and other activities;increasing the energy-efficiency of buildings;promoting decentralised renewable energy production and localised solutions;developing and implementing climate sustainable solutions for urban planning (including carbon sinks);creating conditions for the uptake of clean technology solutions and climate-friendly choices in production and consumption;generating, using and spreading new information on climate change mitigation actions to achieve sector and system level changes in climate change mitigation;and
increasing synergies between climate change mitigation and adaptation.Expected results: LIFE-IP CANEMURE-FINLAND will mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by focusing on capacity building, infrastructure, technological solutions and patterns of behaviour. Ongoing smaller and larger scale projects are connected to CANEMUREitself as complementary actions. These will produce additional information and data for the mitigation work by focusing on R&D on societal transformational processes, new technologies and unblocking of investments in energy production and efficiency. The project will enable the participating regions and municipalities to go a large way towards achieving the 2030 climate change mitigation targets for Finland. Specifically, it is expected that they will achieve 60% of the required reduction for non-ETS sectors. Contributing to this headline figure, the project will achieve the following in participating cities and regions in comparison with average figures for Finland:
20% more electric/biogas vehicles;10% lower heating requirement and energy use of residential buildings;10% more energy from locally-produced renewable sources in residential areas;15% more solar panels and heat pumps;at least 20 new municipalities will commit to curbing their greenhouse gas emissions above and beyond the requirements of EU targets and schedules; andat least 100 mitigation-related decisions will have taken adaptation into consideration.There will also be a 15% increase in public investments in low carbon cleantech solutions thanks to project actions at regional level and the national expert platform. More landowners will implement innovative mitigation practices, leading to a decline in carbon dioxide emissions from organic soils in agriculture and forestry. In addition to the IP budget, the project will facilitate the coordinated use of approx. 77 million of complementary funding from ERDF, Horizon 2020 and national funds. Complementary actions further promote synergies with relevant policy areas, including the EU-ETS and circular economy to effectively capitalise on the emission reductions made possible by the complementary projects.
