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

No 84, ETLA Brief from The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Economic forecast; CO2; Carbon neutrality; Emissions trading (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E17 O11 O30 O44 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10 pages
Date: 2020-01-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-mac and nep-reg
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