Activists File Legal Challenge Over Finnish Climate Inaction

Environmental organisations in Finland on Monday filed a legal challenge accusing the government of breaking its own commitments to protect the climate, the first challenge of its kind in the country.

In July, Finland passed the Climate Change Act, which aims to make the country carbon-neutral by 2035.

But the environmental groups say the government had ignored its own laws by failing to protect the Nordic nation's carbon sinks.

Carbon sinks are natural systems, such as forests, that absorb carbon from the atmosphere and store it in, for example, vegetation and soil.

"The government has violated its own Climate Change Act by not taking a decision on additional measures to meet Finland's climate targets," Hanna Aho, Policy Officer for the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FANC), told AFP.

"As a result, it seems very unlikely that climate targets will be met," Aho said.

The FANC and Greenpeace, which jointly mounted the legal challenge, say carbon sinks in Finland have "collapsed" due to an increase in logging and to slower tree growth.

The most recent chance for the government to address the issue was its Annual Climate Report in October but that still lacked the necessary "assessment on measures to protect the sinks", Aho said.

"Logging has not been restricted, even though it is known to be the most important factor affecting the size of carbon sinks," she added.

The organisations petitioned the country's Supreme Administrative Court to overrule the government's decision to submit the report without "additional measures to enhance carbon sinks".

The groups said the report should be sent back to the drawing board because it was not in line with the Climate Change Act.

"Prime Minister Sanna Marin's government's inaction is in stark contrast to the obligations of the Climate Change Act," Aho said.

It will be up to the court to decide whether or not to hear the case.

In recent years, Finland has struggled to balance its climate ambitions with its forestry industry, which is an important part of its economy.

In 2020, Finnish foresty product exports were worth 10.4 billion euros, amounting to 18 percent of the country's total exports.

A growing number of organisations and individuals around the world have turned to the courts to challenge what they see as government inaction on the climate.

More than 600 activists in neighbouring Sweden, including Greta Thunberg, filed a lawsuit on Friday accusing the state of climate inaction, also a first in the country.