Finland has announced the passing of what has been described as the world’s most ambitious climate target into law.
According to reports, the Northern European country aims to be the first developed country to reach net zero in 2035 and net negative – absorbing more CO2 than it emits – by 2040.
Only South Sudan is said to have a more ambitious net-zero date than 2035 and, as a developing country, its 2030 target is highly dependent on international finance, a report by the Net Zero Tracker shows.
The target for Finland was set based on analysis by a group of independent economists from the Finnish climate change panel who were said to have worked out what the country’s fair share was of the 420 GT of carbon dioxide that the world can emit and still have a two-thirds chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C.
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Finland’s environment minister Emma Kari said that the panel based this fair share on Finland’s share of the global population, its ability to pay to reduce emissions and its historic responsibility for causing climate change.
“It is very important” that the target was set with researchers and people from the climate science community. Kari. a Green Party minister in a coalition of five centre-to-leftwing parties was quoted as saying: “High-income countries have to take a progressive and active role when it comes to tackling climate change.”
While most developed countries including European Union (EU) and the USA have set 2050 net-zero targets, the Finnish analysis found that Germany and the EU should reach net zero in the early to mid-2030s.
Responding to questions on whether the EU should set an earlier target date, Kari said “targets should be based on climate science, on the Paris agreement… if the target is not compatible with the Paris Agreement… then we have to turn it up”.
She described Finland’s target as “ambitious but achievable” and said that it has broad cross-party support in Finland.
Story was adapted from Climate Home News.
