Finland has taken a page from Canada’s books by announcing Thursday it plans to phase out coal by 2030 as the country steps up efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Move is part of broader plans to make Finland’s energy production carbon-neutral and based on renewable biofuels by 2050.
The move, part of the Finland government’s energy and climate strategy, aims to make the nation’s energy production carbon-neutral and based on renewable biofuels by 2050, Good News Finland reports.
The news doesn’t come as a surprise as the fossil fuels use has been steadily falling in the European nation since 2011. Things got even more serious in 2012, when Finland hiked investments in renewable, leading to a near doubling of wind power capacity the following year, according to New Scientist. And as recent as this February, the government injected a further $85 million (€80 million) into its renewable power sector.
Currently, coal generates barely 8% of the country’s power needs.
The proposed phased out, which needs lawmakers’ approval, comes barely days after Canada announced a similar measure and a week behind France’s prime minister announcement that his country would shut all its coal plants by 2023.
3 Comments
telhin
Are they installing PVs in Lapland?
prince george
silly , on the road to bankruptcy because they believe fairytales
WestCoastCommentator
No Telhin, the Finnish are much smarter than that. They ordered a first-of-a-kind French/German EPR nuclear power plant for a fixed(!) price of €2.3 billion, with construction costs currently at €8.5 billion (US$9.5bn) and it is still not done. But here comes the sweetest part of the deal: They can currently get electricity much cheaper through the Baltic links than they had committed to from the giant 1650 MW plant, AND got financial retribution for the delays. Once the power starts flowing from Olkiluoto 3, nuclear power will provide over half of all electricity generated in Finland and they can shut down the coal plants. Plus, another (Russian) reactor will be built in Hanhiviki.