It is noteworthy that no funding for fossil fuels – be it capital, direct subsidies or loan guarantees – is conditional on emission reductions, despite the government’s goal of ensuring that recovery efforts facilitate its exit from fossil fuels.
In its second supplementary budget for the year, the government stated that stimulus efforts should be designed to support its goals of becoming carbon-neutral, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, and moving toward a carbon-free circular economy.
The financing allocated to the fossil economy consists of financing road repairs and maintenance, financial support for shipyards and shipping companies, as well as capital granted to Finnair and state guarantees. Most of the total amount has been allocated to rescuing the majority state-owned airline, according to the Finnish Independence Fund (Sitra).
Sitra has calculated that without the airline’s support, fossil energy would only account for about 10 percent of energy financing.
“Although Finland is strongly committed to sustainable development, most of the funding distributed so far has been transferred directly or indirectly to the fossil economy,” summed up Oras Tynkkynen, Sitra’s senior advisor.
Less than a third (29%) of stimulus funding is instead allocated to green energy. Such uses include the development of rail and light transport infrastructure, the acceleration of wind power licensing procedures, support for the development of an electric vehicle charging network, the promotion of the production of battery chemicals and the development of a local battery cluster.
Fourteen percent of the 2.7 billion has been allocated to other energy projects, such as nuclear power and first-generation biofuels.
Earlier, Green League spokesman Tynkkynen acknowledged that support for air and sea travel may be justified in unusual circumstances, but pointed out that funding for clean energy is much lower.
Canada, South Korea, the UK and the US have all targeted at least 70 per cent of energy-related incentives to fossil fuel-based economic activity, according to data presented on the Energy Policy Tracker website. China, France, Germany and India, on the other hand, have allocated less of their recovery funding to fossil energy than Finland.
Data is gathered from official sources to show how public funds around the world have committed to different types of energy to combat the effects of a pandemic.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
Fuente: nueva finlandia
Fuente: La página nórdica
