While it’s difficult to draw conclusions on how the pandemic has directly impacted greenhouse gas emissions, preliminary figures from Statistics Finland suggest that reduced transport activity lowered emissions last year.
These findings indicate that Finland will meet its emission reduction commitments for the 2013 to 2020 period, the national number cruncher reported on Friday.
Greenhouse gas emissions shrank by nine percent last year from 2019, according to the agency, which said reduced traffic contributed to the decrease.
In addition to the exceptional circumstances triggered by the coronavirus crisis, a milder-than-usual winter and cyclical industrial fluctuations also impacted levels.
In total, greenhouse gases in 2020 amounted to 48.3 million tons of carbon dioxide, a nine percent reduction from the previous year.