Finland leading the Way of climate change benefits
Madhav Trivedi
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Make no mistake , human-caused climate change is an urgent global threat, one in which the consequences vastly outweigh the?benefits . Sea levels are rising,?causing entire islands to disappear ?and?coastal cities to flood . Warmer waters are?intensifying hurricanes and augmenting their rainfall . Droughts are growing?more common and lasting longer .?Agricultural yields will likely fall ?in many of the globe's breadbasket regions.
These impacts of agriculture along with many others are predicted to sap the world's economy by?trillions of dollars ?over the next thirty years.
"We’re not seeing worse heat waves or longer heat waves or more of those long nights that don’t fall below 75 degrees,” Dr. Kenneth Blumenfeld a senior climatologist at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources,
"Instead, what we’re seeing is warmer winters, fewer days during winter where we get to negative 30 Fahrenheit."
The Nordic Region.?
Average temperatures in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland are expected to increase more than the global average over the ensuing decades (as much as 3 to 5 degrees Celsius by 2080 ). While that will necessitate some adaptation, on the whole, the region should benefit. Agricultural growing seasons?will significantly expand . New plant, land animal, and fish species will also thrive in the region.
At the same time, the region's use of electricity is?projected to fall ?the most in Europe as warming winters will reduce the demand for heating.
According to the Act, Finland must?reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 from the levels in 1990. The Act also lays down provisions on a climate policy planning system and on monitoring the achievement of climate objectives.
With 65 % of its land covered by forests, Finland has wood in abundance. That share is expected to grow, thanks to the country’s Forest Act, which mandates that four trees be planted for every tree harvested.
One country Finland, is answering the call in an unexpected way—replacing fossil-based chemicals key emitters of greenhouse gases, with renewable raw materials such as wood to produce goods, services, and energy.
With fires, landslides, and floods raging around the world, the climate crisis demands a sea change in how we live and consume.
Environmental benefits abound. Cutting-edge Finnish companies are coming up with new ways to use wood, from the production of clothing to multistory buildings, from packaging to sustainable fuels and even battery production.
Products are easy to recycle, biodegradable and hypoallergenic and CO 2?can remain stored in cut wood for decades and even centuries.
One country, Finland, is answering the call in an unexpected way—replacing fossil-based chemicals, key emitters of greenhouse gases, with renewable raw materials such as wood to produce goods, services, and energy.
With fires, landslides, and floods raging around the world, the climate crisis demands a sea change in how we live and consume.
Environmental benefits abound. Cutting-edge Finnish companies are coming up with new ways to use wood, from the production of clothing to multistory buildings, from packaging to sustainable fuels and even battery production. Products are easy to recycle, biodegradable, and hypoallergenic, and CO?2?can remain stored in cut wood for decades and even centuries.
“Replacing fossil fuels and materials such as plastic or concrete and steel used for building with wood and bio-based materials limits the carbon emissions to the atmosphere,” says Lotta Heikkonen, chief specialist with Finland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
The economic incentives of this growing market for wood-based products further motivate smart tree management. And many of the wood-based products are made from production by-products and residues or from materials recovered after product use.
In a circular bioeconomy , products are bio-based
a manufacturer of pulp and paper products based in Helsinki. “They are also being shared, reused, remanufactured, and recycled. Finally, they biodegrade or are used for renewable energy. Trees grow back, absorbing CO2, and so the cycle continues.
While biomass alone can’t replace all the materials produced from fossil and mineral sources, “there will be further opportunities to replace fossil-based raw material components with renewable wood-based ones,” says Chief Technology Officer Jyrki Ovaska with Finnish company UPM , which makes a host of wood-based products ranging from biofuels to biomedical products.
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“This is where molecular wood-based biochemicals play a key role.”
Finland isn’t new to climate action. The first country to introduce a?carbon tax , in 1990, it has since cut greenhouse gas emissions by about a fifth. But its ambitions don’t end there: Finland?has set a goal ofbecoming carbon-neutral by 2035 . It plans to do this by deploying electric vehicles, phasing out fossil fuel heating, and creating carbon sinks to absorb and neutralize CO2?emissions.
Although carbon emissions in Finland are already subject to significant pricing, additional measures are needed to achieve the 2035 emissions neutrality goal . The IMF is?working with Finland ?on additional energy pricing and sectoral measures to help bridge the gap.
Why Finland is Building a Wood City?
While Finland’s wood-based approach to climate change may not work for all countries—given climate differences and the trade-offs between agriculture and tree growth—it offers a timely reminder to rethink how we can harness nature to address the global challenge of climate change.
Drawn by the material’s benefits and backed by cutting-edge technology from?Solibri , they’re now building a new district of Helsinki in timber and quite literally taking wooden construction in the country’s capital to new heights. Finland’s long tradition of building with timber dates back to the 16th?century. While this was largely limited to housing, a recent relaxing of regulations around multi-storey wooden structures - along with new innovations in wood manufacturing and digital technology - has made building tall with timber an irresistible prospect for developers.
Those changes combined with high demand for apartments and workplaces in Helsinki have given rise to Wood City a new district on one of the city’s former container ports that is being formed almost entirely with timber.
As a key part of the redeveloped J?tk?saari quarter set to house 17000 residents and create 6000 jobs, Wood City combines Finnish wood construction with sustainable design.
Its first structures - twin affordable apartments for the Helsinki Housing Production Department , ATT - are already built and inhabited. Next to complete is a new office block that will be occupied by the gaming company Supercell, followed by a hotel.
Each of the main buildings rises to eight storeys, with frames and facades made from solid wood, all surrounding a vibrant, green communal courtyard.
Developed by Finnish construction company?SRV ?in cooperation with?Stora Enso ?- the largest supplier of wooden construction material in Europe - the new offices at Wood City are being built using so-called “massive wood products” - mainly laminated veneer lumber, or LVL. According to Stora Enso, LVL is the strongest wood-based material relative to its weight, and is engineered to be relatively stronger than steel and lighter than concrete, while remaining workable and durable.
At Wood City , LVL forms the load-bearing structural systems.
In the apartment blocks, accoya wood was chosen for the facades, while spruce paneling can be found on the balcony interiors.
Helsinki’s history with timber hasn’t been an entirely happy one, and major fires destroyed large areas of the city around once a century in the 400 years up to 1900.
But history is unlikely to repeat itself. Fire-retardant treatments are used throughout Wood City, and LVL offers higher fire resistance than traditional beams due to the structure of the material.
Wood also has a lower carbon footprint than concrete or steel and can be used to build quickly, without the need for weather protection.
Its visual and acoustic attributes are ideal for living and working environments and exposed wood surfaces will feature heavily in the Supercell offices.
Faced with designing a major new district - with all of its timber elements prefabricated under factory conditions away from the site before being transported to Wood City for installation -?Anttinen Oiva Architects ?embraced digital technologies.
Accuracy was key and the project team worked in an information modelling environment, effectively building the city virtually, before construction.
The undulating cross-laminated timber ceiling in the lobby of the office building was especially complex and had to be coded using detailed algorithms to create diagrams, that were then fed to the cutting machines offsite.
Timber arriving at site cut to the wrong size or shape could seriously slow down construction, costing time and money to sort out.
To avoid this, the team de-risked the project by checking their virtual models in?Solibri . The Helsinki based software firm’s platform allowed the team to combine and co-ordinate their virtual designs.
Global warming can also be seen and felt in Finland. Since the mid-1800s, Finland's annual average temperature has increased by more than two degrees Celsius.
Long temperature time series reveal that Finland’s climate has been warming in all seasons. Most significant warming has occurred in early winter.
Heatwaves are becoming more common and last longer in the summer
The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare investigates how extreme weather events, climate change and the measures to combat it can harm citizens’ health, how harmful impacts can be prevented and how the health sector can adapt to the challenges brought by climate change.