Finland to be carbon neutral by 2035. One of the fastest targets ever set

Finland will go carbon neutral by 2035, under a coalition deal published on Monday, setting one of the world’s earliest timelines for reaching that mark.

After more than a month of negotiations, five parties agreed on the goal championed by incoming Social Democrat prime minister Antti Rinne.

Finland's climate strategy hinges on sustainable management of its forests.

Rinne told reporters it was time to “invest in the future”, presenting the climate strategy as part of a package with increased welfare spending. 

The new government said it would legislate the target and then review it in 2025.

In a gesture of openness, members of the newly formed cabinet took the tram to the press conference in a public library, tweeted Finnish journalist Heli Suominen.

Read the Climate Home News story by Megan Darby - “Finland to be carbon neutral by 2035. One of the fastest targets ever set.”

Climate change is supercharging a hot and dangerous summer

In the town of Sodankyla, Finland, the thermometer on July 17 registered a record-breaking 90 degrees, a remarkable figure given that Sodankyla is 59 miles north of the Arctic Circle, in a region known for winter snowmobiling and an abundance of reindeer.

This is a hot, strange and dangerous summer across the planet.

Greece is in mourning after scorching heat and high winds fueled wildfires that have killed more than 80 people. Japan recorded its highest temperature in history, 106 degrees, in a heat wave that killed 65 people in a week and hospitalized 22,000, shortly after catastrophic flooding killed 200.

Ouargla, Algeria, hit 124 degrees on July 5, a likely record for the continent of Africa. And the 109-degree reading in Quriyat, Oman, on June 28 amazed meteorologists because that wasn’t the day’s high temperature. That was the low . It was the hottest low temperature ever recorded on Earth.

Read the story from The Washington Post - “Climate change is supercharging a hot and dangerous summer.”