People sit on an unusually high bench at sunset in Copenhagen on May 9, 2023. According to the World Climate Research Program, it is expected that by 2100, the global average sea level will rise significantly by 1.3-1.6 meters.
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Even in the face of growing green political resistance on both sides of the Atlantic, the world’s happiest country is pressing ahead with plans to achieve more than just net-zero emissions.
Finland and Denmark both target “net negative emissions”, scientists believe explain The equivalent reaches carbon dioxide The amount taken out of the atmosphere is greater than the amount emitted.
If this comes to pass, the two Nordic countries will not only stop fighting for climate crisisbut will actively help slow down global warming.
Finland was recently named the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row and has enshrined into law what is considered one of the world’s most ambitious climate targets.This is aim Become the first high-income country to achieve net-zero emissions by 2035 and net-negative emissions by 2040.
Denmark, World Happiness Report widely accepted As the second happiest country in the world, aim Net zero emissions will be achieved by 2045 and net negative emissions by 2050.
On March 26, 2024, European agriculture ministers held a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, and Belgian farmers protested in the EU zone. Farmers are demonstrating against free trade deals, new environmental rules and administrative burdens associated with subsidies.
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Danish Climate Minister Lars Agard said the need for negative emissions was obvious.
When he spoke to CNBC by phone, he dismissed criticism of the country’s goals. “If you say that, then you have to say the next thing; well, I don’t want to use any products that emit anything, and I don’t want to eat meat or anything like that.”
“I don’t think people will accept this future. So for us, negative emissions are necessary, and without negative emissions we can’t meet our long-term climate commitments,” he added.
Now is the time to discuss this issue. We can’t wait.
Lars Agard
danish climate minister
At the COP28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates late last year, Denmark, Finland and Panama established the Group of Negative Emissions Countries (GONE), an alliance of countries that aims to eliminate more emissions that are warming the planet than they generate. of carbon dioxide.
The Danish-led organization aims to achieve this goal by cutting greenhouse gas emissions, expanding forests and investing in new technologies. Panama, like other heavily forested countries”carbon sink“Countries already remove more carbon than they emit every year.
“The time has come to discuss this issue. We can’t wait,” said Denmark’s Agard.
Denmark’s ability to achieve net negative emissions will depend on policies implemented over the next five to seven years, he added.
Growing green backlash
It comes as Europe faces a backlash against going green — or “greenlash” – opposes policies aimed at combating the climate crisis and protecting the environment.
Across the continent, frustrated farmers have taken to the streets in recent months to demand further exemptions from EU environmental rules.
Nationalist and far-right parties, which are traditionally climate-skeptical, have also been outspoken critics of green policies. Their popularity is soaring in countries such as Germany and France ahead of European Parliament elections.
Fridays for Future activists hold a globe during a climate protest demonstration in Turin, Italy, on April 19, 2024.
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In the United States, climate policy has also become a political hot topic. Former US President Donald Trump, the front-runner to challenge US President Joe Biden in the November election, has made frequent comments. explain In campaign speeches, he said that if elected president, he intended to “drill, baby, drill,” referring to oil production.
Trump also harsh criticism incentives for electric vehicles, and previously pulled the U.S. out of the landmark Paris climate accord, a decision Biden later reversed.
Finland seeks to increase its ‘climate fingerprint’
Finnish climate minister Kai Mykkänen said a parliamentary majority believed that ditching fossil fuels was “the right thing to do”, adding that the government was determined to increase what it called its “climate fingerprint”.
“I’ve been saying for more than a decade that if we learn how to heat the Helsinki region of about 1.5 million inhabitants, for example, without burning any large amounts of fuel, then that means we actually have the energy for large-scale heat pumps or waste heat storage systems. , and then we can scale up in other countries,” Mykkänen told CNBC by phone.
“Of course, Finland itself is a small player. Our share of global emissions is about 0.1%, so we cannot change the direction of climate change alone,” he continued.
“But the meaning of our lives comes from the fact that if we manage to create innovations like this, and then we can deliver it to Montreal, to Beijing (and) hopefully one day to Moscow…then our fingerprints will be bigger than ours The handprint is several times larger.
People fish in the snow-covered Gulf of Finland near Neva Guba region.
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Finland’s four-party coalition government includes the far-right Finns Party, the country’s only major parliamentary party opposed to domestic climate measures.
As a result, Mikanin said the government must orchestrate a delicate balancing act to remain committed to the country’s long-term climate goals.
“Basically, the balancing compromise that already exists in the government’s plan is: yes, we are committed to climate neutrality, with 2035 as the target, but in a way that does not increase everyday costs for ordinary people or undermine our competitiveness ,” Mikanin said. “That’s our fundamental goal.”
Finland’s climate minister stressed that Finland’s efforts to achieve net negative emissions should not be interpreted as a reason for other European countries to continue burning fossil fuels as usual.
“It is unacceptable for us to invest, for example, Biocarbon capture and storage, and then others expressed satisfaction with fossil plants in the 2040s. That’s not what we had in mind,” Mikkanen said.
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