Director of employers' organisation predicts big bill for Finland from emissions trade

Additional costs of up to EUR one billion for 2008 - 2012

Tellervo Kylä-Harakka-Ruonala

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The government will put forward new policies for climatic and energy policy in the summer, and Parliament should get its hands on the package from the beginning of its autumn session.
      Renewal of the climate protection strategy from 2001 is necessary because the Kyoto Protocol has come into effect, and at the beginning of the year the EU launched its strategy of trade in carbon dioxide emissions.
      This is no easy matter. The strategy was to have been ready already in the spring, but the work has been seriously delayed. The issue is under preparation in a working group of civil servants, and in a ministerial working group of climate and energy policy.
     
Tension is high especially in the Finnish business community, which is waiting expectantly for the government to express clearly how it plans to take part in meeting the costs of the planned tightening of emission limits and those of emissions trade during the so-called Kyoto period, from 2008 to 2012.
      Under the terms of the Kyoto Treaty, Finland must bring down its emissions of carbon dioxide to a level equivalent to the emissions of 1990.
      "We are now facing a terribly big problem. Finland cannot achieve its goals through action that it takes on its own, even though we are saving energy, increasing the use of renewable resources, and building more nuclear power", says Tellervo Kylä-Harakka-Ruonala, Director of Business Infrastructure at the Confederation of Finnish Industry (EK).
      It has been estimated that the gap would be about ten million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. "If this were turned into money, the ugly reality would begin to become revealed", Kylä-Harakka-Ruonala says, as she brings forward her grim figures.
      In her calculations, the price of a tonne of CO2 is put at EUR 20. This amounts to EUR 200 million a year, and a total of EUR 1 billion during the whole Kyoto period.
      "That means that the national economy of Finland faces an extra bill this size, because we need to buy more entitlements for emissions from somewhere."
      Kylä-Harakka-Ruonala feels that it is unreasonable to expect corporations to pay the extra bill, noting that Finland as a whole has made a commitment. She notes that companies face an extra bill of hundreds of millions of euros from the increase in the price of electricity alone.
      "The state should acquire more emission rights for Finland, and meet the companies halfway by lowering the electricity taxes of the companies", Kylä-Harakka-Ruonala insists.
     
So how did this come about?
      "Everything goes back to Finland's tight goal. When we committed ourselves to this, the decision-makers did not understand what it would mean in the future", Kylä-Harakka-Ruonala says.
      She sees the situation as an "inconceivable impasse".
      There has been much talk recently about the need for a sixth commercial nuclear reactor. The issue has not been discussed much by EK. Kylä-Harakka-Ruonala notes, however, that the situation after 2012 should be taken into consideration.
      "I think that nuclear energy should be an option among others. No alternatives should be ruled out", she emphasises.
      "Now making it through the Kyoto period is a more topical issue", she observes. She feels that it is good for Finland to have a "varied palette of energy". She adds "It would also be good if this palette could be kept in use."
     
From the point of view of the climate, the increase of emission-free forms of energy and energy conservation would naturally help. "This means renewable energy and nuclear power", she points out.
      Renewable energy sources include bio-energy, hydroelectric power, and wind power. However, she emphasises that these need to be produced in a profitable manner.
      She also comes out in favour of more use of waste as a source of energy. "It is contradictory that the burning of waste has been made so difficult, even though it would be beneficial for the climate. There are limitations in the use of water power, even though it is renewable energy", Kylä-Harakka-Ruonala ponders.


Links:
  Confederation of Finnish Industries

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