President Sauli Niinistö is to address the opening session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday evening Finnish time.
Earlier in the day, he was scheduled to attend a state luncheon hosted by UN Secretary General António Guterres and a reception hosted by US President Donald Trump, whom he will visit next week at the White House.
On Wednesday, Niinistö is scheduled to chair a panel discussion at the UN Sustainable Development Summit. The event is intended to weigh progress on the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was launched four years ago.
During the UN's opening week, the Finnish president is also meeting with his counterparts from Georgia, Poland and Kazakhstan. Also in New York for meetings this week are four Finnish cabinet ministers, including Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.
On Tuesday, Niinistö spoke about the responsibility of finance ministries in tackling climate change at the UN Climate Action Summit.
After fiery remarks by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, some 60 world leaders stepped up to the UN podium to deliver their messages and promises for the future of climate action.
Niinistö's message was that only a "comprehensive transformation of our societies" could hope to help the world shift to carbon neutrality.
Finland aims to be first carbon-negative industrial economy
"Halfway measures are not enough. We have to align all our policies with effective climate action," Niinistö said.
At the centre of his speech were the so-called Helsinki Principles, a set of guidelines for concrete action forming the backbone of an international coalition, co-chaired by Finland and Chile, which Niinistö said already has 40 members worldwide.
"Climate action requires all the tools controlled by finance ministries. Taxation and budgeting, public investment and procurement – when these instruments work in our favour, a carbon-neutral world is possible."
The president finished his speech with a pledge that Finland would commit completely to its target of becoming the first carbon-negative industrial economy in history.
"The bar has been set very high. We want to lead by example. For that, setting targets is not sufficient. Achieving them is what matters," said Niinistö.
Meanwhile in Helsinki on Tuesday, EU agriculture ministers discussed the role of soil carbon sequestration in slowing climate change. At an informal meeting hosted by Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Jari Leppä, they considered ways to support carbon sequestration through the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).