Espoo's climate goal

The Mayor of Espoo Jukka Mäkelä signed the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy in 2018 following a unanimous decision by the City Board. The covenant obliges the mayors who signed the climate covenant to support the European Union’s 40 percent emission reductions set for 2030. The City of Espoo’s Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) is a key implementation tool for the covenant. The measures recorded in Climate Watch are based on the City of Espoo’s SECAP programme (the file exist only in Finnish).

Espoo is committed to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as a pioneer city by 2025. The goal is an Espoo that is economically, ecologically, socially and culturally sustainable. Many of the climate measures also support fulfilling the sustainable development goals, and these goals are also listed in the context of the Espoo Climate Watch actions.

The Sustainable Espoo development programme is a cross-administrative development programme of the City of Espoo for the 2021–2025 council term. Development programmes are one of the important way of realising the Espoo Story. The programmes seek solutions to the council period’s key cross-administrative development objectives and challenges. This is the third consecutive council period for activities under the sustainable development programme.

The sustainable development programme supports Espoo’s objective to act as a global example in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and becoming carbon-neutral by the year 2030. The Council has set five benefit goals for the Sustainable Espoo programme, which will continue to bolster sustainable growth. To achieve its goals, the city is developing, together with companies and other partners, solutions that serve as examples of future carbon-neutral urban life.

The goals of the programme are promoted across five development areas, which are traffic, energy, circular economy and sustainable lifestyle, sustainable land use and construction, and local nature and biodiversity. The programme will compile the city’s climate efforts and those carried out with the Espoo community to form the Carbon Neutral 2030 roadmap over the course of 2022.

The most important reforms of the European Union’s new research and innovation program, Horizon Europe, are the missions with which the Union seeks to address global and societal challenges. The realisation of the missions is supported by significant development funding. One of the five missions is “100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030”. The selected cities commit to reaching carbon neutrality by 2030 and will act as centres of experimentation and innovation for solutions that will enable all European cities to achieve the same goals by 2050.

Espoo being selected among the hundred pioneers strengthens its position as one of the leading European climate cities. A key tool in the mission is the Climate City Contract (CCC). In Espoo, the climate agreement will be linked to the Sustainable Espoo programme’s measures and the preparation of the Carbon Neutral Espoo 2030 roadmap. The agreement will be prepared together with local companies and other interest groups and residents.

The City of Espoo and the energy company Fortum, which produces district heating in the area, are committed to carbon-neutral district heat production by 2030. The use of coal for energy production will already cease entirely in 2025. Building heating produces a significant portion of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The City of Espoo is committed to the Energy Efficiency Agreement for Municipal Sector (KETS) 2017–2025. The agreement supports the fulfilment of Finland’s National Energy and Climate Strategy and Espoo’s climate goals by promoting energy efficiency and measures related to the use of renewable energy. A key objective of the agreement is to reduce total energy consumption by 7.5 percent from 2015 by the end of 2025. Electricity consumption produces a significant portion of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Espoon Asunnot owned by the City of Espoo is committed to the Action Plan of Rental Housing (VAETS) (the file exist only in Finnish), which is part of the Energy Efficiency Agreement for Property Sector, for the period 2017–2025. A key objective of the agreement is to reduce total energy consumption by 7.5 percent from 2015 by the end of 2025. Electricity consumption produces a significant portion of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The City of Espoo is committed to the Europe-wide circular economy commitment Circular Cities Declaration, the ten goals of which promote the implementation of the city’s circular economy and sustainable development. The goals of the circular economy commitment support Espoo's aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as a pioneer city.

The Helsinki Region Environmental Services (HSY) and the municipalities of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area published a joint carbon sink mapping in February 2021. The analysis determined and measured the carbon sinks and carbon stocks of the cities. The largest carbon stocks and sinks are forest soil and vegetation. At the time of collecting the material, Espoo’s carbon sinks are large enough to absorb the greenhouse gas emission targeted for 2030 entirely. The amount of the city’s carbon stocks and sinks can be affected through urban planning solutions.

Espoo’s action plan for adaptation to climate change 2022–2027 (the file exist only in Finnish) is based on the Espoo's Sustainable Energy & Climate Action Plan (SECAP), which was prepared in 2019. The implementation of the measures listed in the SECAP has been converted into tasks that have been compiled into an action plan. The action plan obliges the relevant parties to execute measures to improve preparedness for and adaption to climate change.

The aim is to initiate the implementation during the 2021–2025 council period and monitor it annually within Espoo’s working group for adaptation to climate change, which includes experts from various city profit centres. The tasks and monitoring indicators of the action plan will be supplemented as Espoo’s climate change mitigation efforts progress and new research data becomes available.

Diverse nature secures functioning ecosystems, which also contribute to the balancing of climate change. Nature conservation measures, or LuonTo, is an extensive project that was initiated in 2018. Its goal is to protect and promote natural values and diversity locally in the Espoo area, complying with international and national obligations and goals and implementing the Espoo Story. The project explored and determined ways to support existing protected areas and to supplement the nature conservation network regionally and qualitatively. The sub-areas of the LuonTo project are the Ecological Network’s current State Survey (EVN), the Action Program for Natural Diversity and Espoo’s practices for promoting biodiversity.

• The goal of the Ecological Network’s Current State Survey (the file exist only in Finnish) is to form an overall picture of the current state of Espoo's ecological network, find concentrations of values in nature and update the situation of ecological connections.
• The aim of the 2021–2030 program for biodiversity (the file exist only in Finnish) is to find out and present sites to complement the nature conservation network, as well as other natural sites significant for the preservation of biodiversity and the ecological network, whose values should be protected in Espoo.
• The practices of Espoo for the promotion of biodiversity section (the file exist only in Finnish) aims to compile the city’s practices for considering and promoting biodiversity outside the conservation network.