Finland Aims to Achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2035 0 5

Finland is still striving to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2035, said Minister of the Environment and Climate Sari Multala. According to her, the government wants to make Finland a global power in clean energy. Among the tasks is also electrification, for example, of transport.

The main problem of Finland's climate policy is currently related to the land use sector, which has turned from a carbon sink into a source of emissions. This has been caused, in particular, by the cessation of timber imports from Russia, increased logging, and a decrease in forest growth.

Finland's forests cover about 76% of the country's area (0.5% of the world's timber reserves), making Finland the most forest-rich country in Europe. According to the CIA World Factbook as of 2018, forests cover 72.9% of Finland's territory, the highest percentage among all developed countries in the world. The only other developed countries with such a high percentage of forest cover are Sweden (68.7%), Japan (68.5%), and South Korea (63.9%).

There are about thirty species of trees in Finland, the most common of which are pine (45%), spruce (37%), and birch (15%). More than half of the forests in Finland—62.8%—are privately owned, 32.2% of the forests belong to the state and are managed by the Finnish Forest Administration, and 5.0% belong to other owners.