Finland approves ban on coal for energy use from 2029

The government of Finland had proposed a banon the use of coal for energy production from May 1, 2029, and the parliament recently approved of this proposal. And this will result in the halt of operations of coal plants that are owned by Fortum and other energy firms. The government has come up with a program to compensate these firms.

According to Statistics Finland data, out of the total energy consumption of the country, eight percent came from coal in the first nine months of 2018.

The directive of banning coal as an energy source was being planned for a long time and came into effect only recently. The effective date would be 1st May 2029, according to Lauri Tenhunen who is a senior advisor to the commerce committee of the Finnish Parliament.

After the said date, only emergency situations can lead to the use of coal.

Finland was one of the co-founders of Powering past coal alliance in 2017, and at that time, the country’s ministry of economic affairs and employment aimed to phase out the use of coal for energy production by the year 2030.

This resolution was passed by Environment Minister Kimmo Tiilikainen as part of a policy suit measure. Tiilikainen had been relentlessly campaigning for the ban and making people aware of the present climate and environmental actions of the country. Finland has now joined several other countries, a list which includes the UK which hopes to reach the same decision and implementation by 2025.