If we are to stop or even slow down global climate change, we need to accelerate our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We will not be able to achieve this with traditional technologies alone, and therefore we need to find new solutions. What role does Finland play in this global innovation effort?

The Paris Agreement on climate change aims to hold the rise in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees. This is the time to accelerate our efforts to reduce emissions, otherwise we will fail to achieve these targets.

The fact is that in the long term there are no winners in climate change, not in the economy or the environment. The key is climate change mitigation that does not increase costs unreasonably even in the short term.

It is, therefore, of utmost importance to reduce the costs of low-carbon solutions to make them more attractive. We will need technological breakthroughs and huge clean energy investments within the next few decades to meet our emission reduction targets by 2050.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an average of USD 2.4–2.9 trillion a year will be invested in energy production and use. These investments, when properly allocated, will pave the way for a major transition in the energy sector. The vast amounts of funding will also open unprecedented opportunities to develop new technologies.