Governing through strategies: How does Finland sustain a future-oriented environmental policy for the long term?

Koskimaa, Vesa; Rapeli, Lauri; Hiedanpää, Juha

doi:10.1016/j.futures.2020.102667

Cited by 23 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In practice, the socio‐cultural turn may benefit from long‐term policymaking, which can be easier if generalised trust exists. Long‐term public policy issues last at least one human generation (referred to here as a 25‐year period) and exhibit deep uncertainty (Koskimaa et al, 2021).…”

Section: Governing and Producing Long‐term Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previously, Finnish environmental policies have managed to improve the quality of the environment with technocratic environmental governance (Koskimaa et al, 2021). Problems were solved one at a time by several reforms in the fields of environmental and welfare policies.…”

Section: Governing and Producing Long‐term Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the past, Finnish governments have managed to implement long‐term, expert‐led environmental policies (Koskimaa et al, 2021). However, as sustainability transitions will have an impact on citizens' everyday lives, it requires legitimate policymaking and political participation, therefore an expert‐led approach is no longer sufficient.…”

Section: From Ambitious Aims To Administrative Silosmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reconciling welfare policy and sustainability transition – A case study of the Finnish welfare state

Saikkonen

Ilmakunnas

2023

Env Pol Gov

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The paper investigates the capacity of welfare policies to support sustainability transitions. Welfare policy involves the discussion on public and private responsibilities and choices in public spending. The Finnish government's decision to turn Finland into a carbon neutral welfare society by 2035 is interpreted as a possible sustainability transition. The government launched a social security reform at the same time as the carbon neutrality target was announced. It was assumed that one of the major reforms would be utilised to achieve the carbon neutrality target. The research material consists of administrative, policy and political documents. The chosen documents describe how the issues are presented in policymaking. The qualitative analyses focused on the frames. It was examined how the current problems of the system were framed because the frames guide the possible solutions. According to our analysis, the Finnish government showed strong political will for sustainability transition. However, one of its major reforms was not utilised to create policies to support the shift towards a carbon neutral welfare society. The political will did not convert into action on the social security reform. The main reason seems to be related to the strongly guiding legislative frame in the reform. The legislative frame impacted on the utilised knowledge, which focused solely on the system level of social security. It could have been useful to utilise research knowledge about large‐scale reforms and how to formulate them cross‐sectionally.

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Section: Governing and Producing Long‐term Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Governing and Producing Long‐term Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: From Ambitious Aims To Administrative Silosmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reconciling welfare policy and sustainability transition – A case study of the Finnish welfare state

Saikkonen

Ilmakunnas

2023

Env Pol Gov

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“…Perhaps no other policy sector has experienced this issue as strong as environmental policy, as Environmental and Climate Technologies ____________________________________________________________________________ 2021 / 25 1199 experience with the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement have shown. Some researchers have proposed ways to restrict democratic short-sightedness that result from short-lived elected state systems while others have gone outside the electorate, arguing that major longterm decisions should be protected from electoral pressures [27]. A good example is Finland, which introduced state institutions that actively uphold fragmented power, and served as the core structural long-term political engine for Finland's long-term environmental policy [28].…”

Section: Climate and Energy Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling of Institutional Capacity within Study of Energy Transition Dynamics

Farenhorste-Mikane

Bažbauers

Blumberga

et al. 2021

Environmental and Climate Technologies

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Institutional capacity is enabling environment for interactions between individuals and organizations. Understanding the changes required regarding the institutional capacity is needed to remove barriers and stimulate transition to sustainable energy systems. The aim of this study was to identify those barriers to understand what type of changes of the institutional capacity is required. Review of publications was done with focus on the three critical domains for clean energy transition – social acceptance, climate and energy policy and critical materials. In result, the most important aspects of the institutional capacity that form the barriers as well as stimulus in the three domains were identified. Causal loop diagram providing a systemic viewpoint on the important elements and interactions within the mentioned three domains is presented. Results of the study can be used for system dynamics model of energy transition.

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“…During the last three decades, Finland has often been cited as a leader in environmental protection (Koskimaa et al, 2021). Recent governments have committed to advancing the transition to a carbon-neutral society, with forests playing an important part as carbon sinks (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formal commitments versus actual practices? Narratives as tools of epistemic governance in the debate over Finnish forestry

Sivonen

Syväterä

2022

Acta Sociologica

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Nation states often end up adopting practices that are incongruent with their formal commitments to international efforts, such as mitigation of climate change. Although the necessity of a transfer towards carbon-neutral societies is widely understood, such decoupling is a challenge to transition. This study analyses the political discourse in the Finnish media from 2017 to 2018 around the European Union's Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation. The discourse embodies a contradiction, as the Finnish government sought to justify its aim to log a record amount of forest while officially pledging to climate change mitigation. The forest industry and the government launched a major lobbying campaign to influence the regulation calculations to be adopted by the European Union. Several representatives of the scientific community rose to oppose the government's plan of action by distributing scientific knowledge on the negative climate effects caused by extensive forestry; a vigorous public debate around the correct ways to use this natural resource ensued. Our analysis identifies three prevailing narratives, each portraying and resolving the contradiction in a distinct way. We argue that narratives work as tools of epistemic governance and demonstrate how policy actors selectively weave scientific knowledge into such narratives.

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Governing through strategies: How does Finland sustain a future-oriented environmental policy for the long term?

Cited by 23 publications

References 33 publications

Reconciling welfare policy and sustainability transition – A case study of the Finnish welfare state

Reconciling welfare policy and sustainability transition – A case study of the Finnish welfare state

Modelling of Institutional Capacity within Study of Energy Transition Dynamics

Formal commitments versus actual practices? Narratives as tools of epistemic governance in the debate over Finnish forestry

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