{"id":101672,"date":"2021-12-09T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=101672"},"modified":"2021-12-07T11:46:21","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T10:46:21","slug":"finland-set-to-reject-eu-taxonomy-rules-over-biomass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/finland-set-to-reject-eu-taxonomy-rules-over-biomass\/","title":{"rendered":"Finland set to reject EU taxonomy rules over biomass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Finland has come out against the EU\u2019s draft \u201cTaxonomy Climate Delegated Act\u201d saying the proposed classification of biomass under the EU\u2019s green finance rules goes against the country\u2019s national interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU taxonomy regulation spells out conditions under which economic activities can be considered sustainable, sending a signal to investors about what is green and what is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of economic activities, including hydropower and the burning of biomass, were covered in April in a so-called \u201cclimate delegated act,\u201d which spells out conditions under which an economic sector can be classified as a \u201csustainable\u201d, \u201ctransition\u201d or \u201cenabling\u201d activity in the fight against climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EU countries are set to vote on the proposal in December and can only approve the text or reject it, voting by a qualified majority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in a statement<\/a> last week (17 November) the Finnish government said it \u201cdoes not support the adoption of the [climate] delegated act in the current form proposed by the European Commission\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main concern for Helsinki is the treatment of forestry and bioenergy under the EU proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe issue is so firmly a question of national interests that we can\u2019t be a country without a stance in the EU,\u201d explained Annika Saariko, the Finnish finance minister, on 10 November.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, EU countries extended the deadline to scrutinise the proposal<\/a>. And Finland has come to the conclusion that \u201csome aspects of the technical criteria for forest management are difficult to understand and open to interpretation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the proposal, \u201cforestry would be excluded from the taxonomy, which would make it more difficult to access funding for forestry investments,\u201d reads the statement by the Finnish government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Finland, where forestry makes up about 20% of the country\u2019s exports, the proposal would enhance obligations to monitor climate sustainability of forest use, which \u201cwould only increase bureaucracy, and we can\u2019t be certain that it would help to combat climate change,\u201d said Saariko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Autumn, a majority of lawmakers in the European Parliament already cleared the Commission\u2019s proposed climate delegated act after several attempts to reject the proposal were defeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are drafting the new grammar of financial markets,\u201d stated leading French MEP Pascal Canfin on 6 October, following the final vote in parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old alliances<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Swedish government is expected to align itself with the Finnish position as its national forestry industry is similarly important and the two countries lobbied jointly to weigh on the EU\u2019s first delegated act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finland may also be seeking to revive the nine-country alliance<\/a> of March of 2021, which urged the EU to recognise \u201cthe crucial role of bioenergy in member states\u2019 energy-mix\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll forms of solid, gaseous and liquid bioenergy fuels that are sustainable under the Renewable Energy Directive must be declared long-term sustainable energy sources,\u201d said the letter signed by Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Swedish forestry industry association has criticised the circular economy criteria laid down in the taxonomy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe suggested criteria in the draft report give advantages to member states with less natural resources and larger population, and consequently disadvantages to member states such as Sweden, that have abundant natural resources and less population,\u201d explained Kai-Yee Thim, director of products and safety at the Swedish Forest Industries association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finland and Sweden would have to gather support form 13 other EU states accounting for 65% of the total EU population in order to block the proposed delegated act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finland has come out against the EU\u2019s draft \u201cTaxonomy Climate Delegated Act\u201d saying the proposed classification of biomass under the EU\u2019s green finance rules goes against the country\u2019s national interest. The EU taxonomy regulation spells out conditions under which economic activities can be considered sustainable, sending a signal to investors about what is green and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Finland has stated that it would oppose the EU taxonomy climate delegated act presented in April, Sweden is expected to align itself.","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[10416,5627,6268,5528],"supplier":[2317,4514,5585,14674,13730,19495],"class_list":["post-101672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-circulareconomy","tag-energy","tag-forestry","tag-sustainability","supplier-european-commission","supplier-european-parliament","supplier-european-union","supplier-finnish-government-valtioneuvosto","supplier-government-of-sweden","supplier-swedish-forestry-society-foreningen-skogen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101672"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=101672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}