View metadata,citationandsimilarpapersatcore.ac.uk THE FINNISH ENVIRONMENT 3 | 2009 Tackling climate change in Finland and other industrialised countries requires major changes in production processes and consumption patterns. These will not take place unless climate change becomes a crucial factor in general and sector-specifi c policy- making. In this report climate policy integration in Finland is studied at different levels of policymaking: at the national level, regionally in Kymenlakso and the Metropolitan MAKING THE CLIMATE COUNT THE CLIMATE MAKING ENVIRONMENTAL Area, and in the city of Helsinki and the town of Kotka. Climate policy integration is YMPÄRISTÖN-YMPÄRISTÖNN- Making the Climate Count PROTECTIONSSUOJELUUOJELU fi rst assessed in general governmental policies, such as the government programme, the budget proposal and impact assessment guidelines. Furthermore, it is assessed in more Climate Policy Integration and Coherence in Finland detail in the policies, agencies and practices of the transport and innovation sectors. Paula Kivimaa and Per Mickwitz Climate change appears increasingly in the more general strategies of Finnish public administration. The latest Government Programme and indeed the 2009 Government Budget Proposal emphasise climate change mitigation and adaptation more than before. However, integration has not yet been fully refl ected in the implementation of specifi c measures. For example, the state budget still lacks concrete climate objectives for most sectors and evaluations of the climate impacts of different budget allocations. Kymenlaakso and the Metropolitan Region as well as the city of Helsinki and the town of Kotka have increased the weighting of climate change in their strategies. In spite of some specifi c measures, such as increased investments in public transport, much remains to be done at the local level, for example, in energy production and land use planning. Most structural changes in production and consumption patterns required for a low carbon Finland still lie ahead. More effi cient climate policy integration is essential for such structural transformations. In the context of extended climate policy integration, the coherence of and confl icts between climate policy and other policy aims require attention. Reducing policy confl icts may mean that other aims, such as unlimited and inexpensive mobility, must be subordinated to climate change mitigation. THE FINNISH ENVIRONMENT 3|2009 THE FINNISHENVIRONMENT Edita Publishing Ltd, provided by P.O.Box 780, FI-00043 Edita, Finland Customer service: tel. +358 20 450 05, fax +358 20 450 2380 Mail orders: [email protected] www.edita.fi /netmarket Helsingin yliopistondigitaalinenarkisto brought toyouby ISBN 978-952-11-3355-8 (pbk.) ISBN 978-952-11-3356-5 (PDF) ISSN 1238-7312 (printed) ISSN 1796-1637 (on-line) CORE Finnish Environment Institute THE FINNISH ENVIRONMENT 3 | 2009 Making the Climate Count Climate Policy Integration and Coherence in Finland Paula Kivimaa and Per Mickwitz Helsinki 2009 FINNISH ENVIRONMENT INSTITUTE THE FINNISH ENVIRONMENT 3 | 2009 Finnish Environment Institute Research Department Layout: Ritva Koskinen Cover photo: Smoke from the Hanasaari power plant, Helsinki, Finland © Matti Melanen Man skiing on artificial snow January 15 2009, Helsinki Finland © Matti Melanen The Loviisa nuclear power plant, Finland © Per Mickwitz The Town Hall of Kotka, © Jari Pitkäkangas The Government Palace, Helsinki, Finland © SYKE The publication is also available on the Internet: http://www.environment.fi/publications Edita Prima Ltd, Helsinki 2009 ISBN 978-952-11-3355-8 (pbk.) ISBN 978-952-11-3356-5 (PDF) ISSN 1238-7312 (printed) ISSN 1796-1637 (on-line) PREFACE On 7th May 2007, the Partnership for European Environmental Research (PEER), composed of seven environmental research organisations (Alterra, CEH, Cemagref, JRC-IES, NERI, SYKE and UFZ), published a joint statement “Climate change and sustainable development – an unprecedented challenge for the research community”. In this statement the PEER centres proposed a joint initiative to analyse and explore novel approaches to mitigation and adaptation, inviting regional, national, European and global research partners to participate in this initiative. The aim is to build an open European platform that brings together expertise and exchanges information on the best approaches to mitigate and adapt to climate change. (http://peer-initiative.org/ html/obj454.html) As a follow-up to this statement, PEER in November 2007 launched two joint projects: 1) Comparative Analysis of European National Adaptation Strategies and 2) Policy Integration, Coherence and Governance. This report is one of the deliverables of the latter project. It is intended to function both as a separate study on climate policy integration and coherence in the Finnish public administration and as a comparative case among several country studies produced during the project. A separate synthesis report illustrates the cross-country and cross-sectoral challenges of climate policy integration and coherence more widely. This Finnish country study also relates to a separate study carried out by the Finn- ish Environment Institute (SYKE) for the Prime Minister’s Office in Finland during the period January – March 2008 on mainstreaming climate policy in Finland, which was translated into English in 2009 (http://www.vnk.fi/julkaisukansio/2009/j2109- mainstreaming-climate/pdf/en.pdf). The previous study acted as important back- ground and a question forming platform for the PEER study. We want to thank all the people who have contributed to our studies on climate policy integration by participating in interviews and discussion groups and by com- menting drafts of the report. 4 The Finnish Environment 3 | 2009 CONTENTS 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................7 1.1 Background .............................................................................................................7 1.2 Objectives, methods and materials ....................................................................8 2 The national context and institutional responsibilities ...........................12 2.1 Political system in Finland ................................................................................12 2.2 Administrative structure in Finland ...............................................................13 2.3 Barriers, promoters and key challenges for climate change mitigation and adaptation ............................................................................................................16 3 Horizontal climate policy integration and coherence at the national level .................................................................18 3.1 Governmental programmes and strategies ....................................................18 3.2 Climate change strategies ..................................................................................21 3.3 Strategic environmental assessment ...............................................................28 3.4 Regulatory impact assessments .......................................................................28 3.5 Other key means for horizontal climate policy integration .......................29 3.5.1 Government climate policy specialist ..................................................29 3.5.2 Horizontal cooperation in climate issues ............................................30 3.5.3 Sustainable Development Commission ...............................................30 3.5.4 Sectoral research on climate change ....................................................31 3.6 Conclusions on horizontal climate policy integration at the national level ...................................................................................................32 4 Sector specific climate policy integration and coherence at the national level ......................................................................................................33 4.1 Policy integration and coherence in the transport sector ...........................33 4.1.1 Background to the transport sector and transport policy in Finland ..........................................................................................................33 4.1.2 Integration of climate change issues into transport policy strategies ............................................................................................................35 4.1.3 Vertical integration of climate policy into state transport policy instruments .......................................................................................................38 4.1.4 Vertical integration of climate policy into the strategies and operation of transport sector agencies ..................................................39 4.2 Climate policy integration and coherence in the technology and innovation sector ................................................................................................41 4.2.1 Background to the technology and innovation sector in Finland ...41 4.2.2 Integration of climate change issues into technology and innovation policy strategies ....................................................................42 4.2.3 Vertical integration of climate policy into state innovation policy instruments ...........................................................................................44 4.3 Conclusions on sector-specific climate policy integration at