A convoy of more than one hundred articulated lorries pulled up in front of Parliament in central Helsinki on Friday morning to press demands for a change in policy on the production and use of peat.
The producers' protest was being held to press demands that peat be classified as a renewable resource in proportion to its annual growth.
The demand by producers is also backed by a citizens' initiative that has collected just over 39,000 signatures. If and when it passes the 50,000 mark, Parliament will be obligated to take the issue under consideration.
The protest, which drew drivers and their vehicles mainly from the region of Ostrobothnia and as far as from Lapland, disrupted traffic in central Helsinki and on some of its major feeder routes.
Dissatisfaction with budget deal
According to the government's programme, the energy use of peat must be at least halved by 2030 due to its high greenhouse gas emissions. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has proposed a blueprint for phasing out the use of peat as an energy source.
It now looks as if the government target could be reached as early as next year, and that by 2025, further reductions would bring the use of peat in energy production to 70 percent of the 2018 level.
A package of financial support is being prepared that includes aid to businesses ending peat production, and tax breaks for heating plants that currently use peat on a small scale.
The deal reached by the government in its latest budget talks includes a decision to provide a total of 70 million euros in support to peat producers this year and next.
Markus Mantela, an entrepreneur in the peat sector from Kauhava and an organiser of Friday's protest, dismissed the government's plan out of hand.
"We're not looking for aid. We want to rectify the status of peat, do profitable work, and get domestic peat into energy trading," he told Yle.
According to Mantela, peat is not traded due to its poor image, and because of emissions trading fees and energy taxes. The reason, he says, is the classification of peat as a non-renewable natural resource.
Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä (Cen) says that he is concerned about the situation in the peat sector and hopes that more developed products can be produced from peat in the future. However, Minister Lintilä rejects any move to classify peat as a renewable.
"The climate panel defines peat as slowly renewable, but peat emissions are classed as fossil fuel emissions. The classification cannot be revised on the national level," Lintilä points out.
The peat industry says that production directly employs about 2,400 people in Finland.
Story continues after the photo.
Professor: No basis for reclassifying peat
Peat represents four to six percent of energy production in Finland but accounts for 12-15 percent of energy production emissions. In addition, peat extraction impoverishes the diversity of wetlands and pollutes waterways.
Markku Ollikainen, Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics at the University of Helsinki, says that the demands of peat producers are unrealistic. Ollikainen points out that there are no grounds for classifying peat as a renewable natural resource, and Finland alone could not make such a decision.
"Peat emissions are treated in EU emissions trading like fossil fuels and this is justified from a climate perspective. Peat is ranked just after coal, which is being completely excluded from energy use," Ollikainen points out.
Professor Ollikainen is critical of a temporary increase in the tax-free use of peat for energy granted in the budget debate.
"The decision on taxation sends a mixed signal to the industry in terms of incentives. The perspective must be that the use of peat ceases altogether," he argues.
According to Ollikainen, closing down the peat production sector should have been more forceful and more carefully planned at an earlier stage.