Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) travels to Dubai on Thursday to attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) which has begun in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The conference is to continue until December 12.
Finland plans to promote business solutions to climate problems with its first-ever national pavilion at a UN climate conference. According to the government, the pavilion will highlight Finnish climate solutions, such as clean energy innovations.
Orpo will formally open the pavilion on Friday before attending the two-day Heads of State Summit.
"Finland has set an ambitious target of being carbon neutral by 2035. This goal cannot be achieved without cooperation between different sectors," he said in a government handout on Thursday.
"I am very proud that our pavilion is such a strong joint effort by the public sector, businesses committed to the green transition and third sector organisations," Orpo added.
Three other members of Orpo’s right-wing cabinet will also attend events at the pavilion during COP28: Minister of Environment and Climate Change Kai Mykkänen (NCP), Foreign Trade and Development Minister Ville Tavio (Finns) and European Affairs Minister Anders Adlercreutz (SPP), who also oversees state-owned firms.
"The EU must continue to be a global leader in climate policy," Adlercreutz said on Thursday. "When the world’s largest single market sets goals, the world around it inevitably changes. This also gives our businesses opportunities to lead the way in the green transition market."
Carbon neutrality goal "extremely stupid"
Other members of Orpo's cabinet have downplayed or dismissed concerns about climate change.
During government formation talks last May, Finns Party chair Riikka Purra – now finance minister and deputy prime minister – described the carbon neutrality goal as "extremely stupid".
Purra’s short-lived choice as economic affairs minister, MP Vilhelm Junnila (Finns), had urged the previous government in a parliamentary speech to promote "climate abortions" in Africa as a means to combat global warming. He resigned as minister but remains deputy chair of the Constitutional Law Committee.
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