A situational awareness workshop on the climate targets of Northern Ostrobothnia was held in Oulu on 11 March 2020. Thank you to everyone involved!
The provincial government decided at the beginning of last year that the climate and energy strategy from 2010 and 2012 will be updated into a common climate roadmap defining climate targets and measures. To support the extensive preparatory work, development project funding was requested from the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Northern Ostrobothnia under the ERDF programme. With its POPclimate project, the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia coordinates this road map project, which will be completed at the end of the year.
The region's climate targets are based on researched data and the work is carried out in extensive cooperation with various actors. One of the key partners is the CANEMURE project, which is coordinated by Oulu University of Applied Sciences in Northern Ostrobothnia.
Three main events form the core of the road map process. Workshop I will lay the foundations for the work, the second workshop in April will clarify the objectives and the third workshop in May is already about solutions.
The current state of climate work is tightly packaged in Workshop I: the views of the groups guiding climate work, information on the situation in the region's thirty municipalities and the general operating environment in presentations and panel discussions.
Regional programmes – forestry, agriculture, transport, land use, town and country planning and energy – were represented in the working groups of the day. The long-term work and experience of different parties, as well as the possibilities for influencing, are utilised in setting climate goals. One of the objectives of the event was to strengthen the cooperation network and increase the flow of information.
While the provincial government decided to update the climate and energy targets, it established a two-year advisory board to guide this work. The Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, key stakeholders and the regional government are represented in the Advisory Board, whose chairman Matias Ojalehto is also the chairman of the Advisory Board.
Project Manager Ritva Isomäki asked President Ojalehto: 1. What role does the Climate Action Council play and why does North Ostrobothnia need its own climate strategy? 2. Finland's goal is to be carbon neutral by 2035. It requires rapid action in all sectors. What is North Ostrobothnia like in 2035 and how has the goal you described been achieved? What concrete steps are North Ostrobothnia prepared to take to accelerate the necessary changes? 3. The Advisory Board, together with the Canemure Regional Cooperation Group, has met three times. What are the Council's greetings to the workshop? What could be the basis for climate work in Northern Ostrobothnia and what change would you like to see in three years' time?
Listen to Ojalehto's answers and morning presentations and panel discussion.
Check out the program of the event (pdf).
Check out the presentations:
Operating environment: goals and opportunities, Janne Hietaniemi, Solved (pdf)
