Prime Minister Juha Sipilä shook hands with other Nordic ministers on Friday afternoon at the House of the Estates, where they had summoned for Nordic Climate Meeting.
One of the most cheerful guests was Katrin Jakobsdottir, the prime minister of Iceland, an environmentalist at heart, chair of the Left-Green Movement.
She was followed by Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg and ministers specifically responsible for matters related to climate.
In their meeting at a long table resembling a boomerang, the ministers threw ideas back and forth and agreed to raise their level of climate ambition by 2020. They agreed to achieve carbon neutrality quicker than any other country.
“Climate change is a challenge that demands intersectional and international cooperation. The Nordic countries can lead by example and cooperate more closely on reducing emission, using both traditional methods and new technologies in binding carbon,” Prime Minister Jakobsdottir said after their meeting. “A strong climate action can be achieved hand in hand with Nordic values of prosperity and welfare for all,” she continued.
The decision makers agreed to follow the 1.5 Degree Report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC in October 2018.
“We take the UN report from IPCC on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees seriously,” said the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. “The Nordic countries have a long tradition of cooperation. We demonstrate to the world that it is possible to combine economic growth and an ambitious climate policy,” she continued.
According to the joint declaration given by the countries, their cooperation will intensify in order to
- reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, maintain or enhance carbon sinks and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by
- removing obstacles to low-emission development and promoting transformations toward renewable energy
- promoting carbon pricing
- encouraging the private sector to tackle global warming
- decarbonizing the transport sector, for example, by electrification and use of sustainable renewable fuels
- promoting the use of sustainably produced wood in Nordic countries, including in construction
And so on.
