CO2 Emissions in Finland 2019–2023 and the Carbon Neutrality Objective

Abstract

In order to fight the climate change, the European Union and Finland as its member country are seeking carbon neutrality by 2050, Finland already by 2035. In this brief, we assess the development of Finnish greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 equivalent) in 2019–2023 based on ETLA’s most recent macroeconomic and industry sector forecasts. Technological change that will cut greenhouse gas emissions is paramount for the efforts to reach carbon neutrality. We use three technological assumptions that describe how the emission intensity of value added may develop.

Our baseline scenario, based on how value added will change in each industry combined with their average development in emission intensity over the past few years, shows that the aggregate emissions will decrease on average by less than two per cent annually up until 2023. This will not be enough to reach the carbon neutrality target with current carbon sinks with which the average required annual rate of decrease would be over seven per cent. Consequently, technological change needs to accelerate considerably.

The public sector can support the efforts to reach carbon neutrality by, among other things, R&D funding, removing harmful subsidies, introducing environmental taxes, and being active in the development of the EU’s emissions trading system. Carbon neutrality can also be taken into account in public procurement and infrastructure investments.

Publication info

Research group
Macroeconomy and public finances
Series
ETLA Muistio - ETLA Brief 84
Date
21.01.2020
Keywords
Economic forecast, CO2, Carbon neutrality, Emissions trading
ISSN
2323-2463
JEL
E17, O11, O30, O44, O47
Pages
10
Language
Finnish