Finland: Lahti wants to become completely CO2 neutral by 2025

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Saara Vauramo heads the Lahti Environment Agency in southern Finland

Photo: Lassi Häkkinen / City of Lahti

SPIEGEL:

Ms. Vauramo, your city is currently the Green Capital of Europe 2021, the BBC reported on Lahti and various other international media.

A lot of attention for a city of 120,000.

What exactly have you been awarded for?

Vauramo:

Probably above all for the goal of being completely CO2-neutral by 2025.

That would be ten years before the rest of Finland.

And I'm currently very optimistic that we can do it.

SPIEGEL:

What measures do you want to take to achieve this?

Vauramo:

This is mainly possible because we have shut down our old coal-fired power plant, we recycle a lot and we make sure that new buildings are energy-efficient.

We can offset the remaining emissions through the forest areas around Lahti.

Every year we publish a report in which our emissions are evaluated independently.

So everyone can see where we are.

In the past five years we have set a new record every time.

SPIEGEL:

But it is also true that a large part of the savings can be traced back to the collapse of industry in the 1990s.

At that time you lost a large part of your sales markets for wood in the Eastern Bloc, for example.

Without this turning point, would Lahti even have a chance of doing so well now?

Vauramo:

You are right, that was a turning point.

30 years ago Lahti was still one of the dirtiest cities in Europe with resource-intensive industry and a lot of environmental damage.

The big lake in our city was so polluted that you weren't allowed to bathe in it.

In the early 1990s, the economy collapsed and 20 percent of Lahti's residents became unemployed

However, we then deliberately chose a new path and did not try to save the old model. The first environmental plan for the period up to 2001 was drawn up as early as 1992. It began with the renaturation of the lake - it is now of drinking water quality - followed by further steps such as the decommissioning of the coal-fired power station. Since Finland joined the EU in 1995, we have also been able to get more help from outside. Now we have one of the most efficient waste-to-energy plants in Europe. What is not recycled warms our city. We also use biomass from wood waste. This is not yet completely CO2-neutral, but it is a renewable raw material. The main reason we are doing so well today is because we took action ourselves and took advantage of our opportunities.

SPIEGEL:

How did you manage to get everyone involved, politics and industry, but also the residents?

Vauramo:

I quickly learned that communication is key. I spend two thirds of my working time talking, lecturing and discussing new concepts. For me as an ecologist, it was all very strange at first. It almost seemed indecent to me that we should promote our ideas so much. But it works. We do a lot of research on biodiversity, the university is well positioned. Our pioneering position helps us to locate innovative companies here. Today we have a factory where oat kernels are ground in such a way that the peel remains usable. Until recently, it was mostly garbage that was burned. Now the sugar substitute xylitol is made from it. Every second bread roll in Finland is now baked with this flour, the company has hundreds of employees. We want such examples.

SPIEGEL:

Why should young companies settle with you of all people?

Lahti is closer to Russia than to Sweden.

Doesn't your city stand a chance against places like Helsinki or Berlin?

Vauramo:

We see our size as an advantage.

Our administration is small enough to really implement things and to be able to react quickly to changes.

I have a team of five or six people.

If there is something to discuss, we call each other or meet in the office.

SPIEGEL:

Probably the most notable concept in Lahti at the moment is probably the »CitiCap«.

An app that citizens can use to record their personal CO2 consumption.

Those who saved emissions in the pilot project received vouchers for the bus or the cinema.

How does this work?

Vauramo:

The transport

is the last major construction site on our way to CO2 neutrality.

One problem is that many people want to improve their carbon footprint, but do not know exactly what the consequences of their everyday life are.

Apps like »CitiCap« can change that.

The users first enter how they live at home.

The app then records how they are moving and recognizes whether they are cycling or driving.

Those who lower their emissions receive discounts.

That's the idea.

SPIEGEL:

If I have to go to the countryside as a worker, it may be difficult to use anything other than the car.

And you also have to be able to afford a new Tesla.

Vauramo:

Anyone who has to bring children to daycare or to assembly could specify that exactly.

At first it was just an experiment.

The first attempt lasted six months, with 600 participants, during the pandemic and in some cases lockdowns, which has certainly changed the usage somewhat.

Most of them thought the concept was very fair afterwards.

SPIEGEL:

For individual emissions trading to be effective, as many citizens as possible would have to participate and a lot of data would have to be collected.

Aren't you afraid that this will ultimately boil down to surveillance and some kind of government social scoring system that rates good and bad behavior?

Vauramo:

Our approach is to create new incentives.

It's about empowering citizens to make their own decisions.

But the rules have to be clear: Nobody has to participate.

All data is collected anonymously.

We mustn't force anyone to report their personal emissions to the state - in the end that would probably be a monitoring system like the one in China.

That is not in our interest.

Conversely, this also means that a voluntary app cannot be the only solution.

SPIEGEL:

The pilot phase has now ended.

In the evaluation, 20 percent of the participants said they had cheated at least occasionally.

Did you expect that?

Vauramo:

This openness also surprised us, but not only negatively.

It is in the human nature that we sometimes want to be more responsible than we actually are.

As a municipality, this also helps us to better assess the effectiveness of our climate protection projects.

SPIEGEL:

What will happen to the project now? Will you continue to use the app?

Vauramo:

We are still evaluating that at the

.

But probably not.

It just takes a lot of effort.

As a city, we can hardly afford to run such an app.

But we make sure that the results are made available to others.

And of course we want to continue to create incentives to be more environmentally friendly on the road.

SPIEGEL:

Wouldn't it have been easier to build bike paths directly, even if that sounds less spectacular?

Vauramo:

We do that too.

We have just started a new bike-sharing offer that has been extremely well received.

One of the next projects is a bicycle expressway.

Incidentally, the project data also help us with this because we now know better where bike traffic is concentrated.

SPIEGEL:

While you are celebrated internationally and are seen as a role model, there is definitely criticism in Lahti.

The right-wing populist "True Finns" doubled their seats in the local elections in June and are now the second strongest force.

During the election campaign, they railed against new environmental protection projects and higher parking fees.

Is climate protection dividing your city?

Vauramo:

There are a number of reasons why the mood has changed.

In surveys, 60 to 70 percent are still clearly behind our strategy.

But it's true: You make yourself vulnerable if you take action against climate change.

Doing nothing would certainly be easier.

On the other hand, people now expect us to single-handedly stop the climate crisis.

We achieved a lot in Lahti - but of course we can't either.

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