Background information

The Ministry of the Environment's "Municipal Climate Solutions" program has granted funds to 16 local and regional climate projects to speed up Finland's climate work.

The measure aims at bringing Finnish municipalities to the core of Finland's work on climate change and the green transition and involve municipalities in the active striving towards these goals.

Subsidized projects must produce the most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in municipalities and develop effective climate practices as part of the municipality's goal-oriented and continuous operations.

Content of measure

The project provides Finnish municipalities with the possibility to apply for funding for municipal projects that aim towards furthering the work on climate change and the green transition. Besides municipalities, Finnish regions can create consortiums through which they can apply together for funding. All municipalities are in principle eligible for applying, and the Ministry of Environment received a total of 41 applications. The precision and feasibility of the project plan, as well as the amount of the project budget in relation to the targeted emission reductions, were important evaluation criteria.

The total scale of support provided to the 16 projects adds up to just short of €800,000. The support provided to each case vary between €21,000 and €56,000, with six cases receiving €56,000 in funding. Out of the projects that received funding, 14 are implemented by municipalities, and two are carried out by consortiums consisting of two regions.

The projects that received funding cover a wide range of activities. The funded projects aim, among other things, to embed climate management at the core of the municipalities' operations, reduce traffic emissions, increase climate cooperation between the municipality's residents and businesses, reduce the energy consumption of buildings and promote a climate-friendly food culture among young people.

Use of measure

In total, 16 projects received funding in the round of 2023. The "Municipal Climate Solutions"-program has been running since 2018. During this time, a total of 160 projects have received funding, including the 16 projects that received funding in 2023. This is the last round of funding, as the "Municipal Climate Solutions" program will end in 2024.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Local / regional government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement as case not in social partner domain	No involvement as case not in social partner domain
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

Social partners were not and will not be involved in this case.

Views and reactions

Social partners were not and will not be involved in this case. Probably therefore, and due to the uncontroversial nature of the measure, there have not been any identifiable views nor reactions to the measure by social partners.

Sources

• 13 October 2023: Ympäristöministeriö myönsi lähes 800 000 euroa avustuksia kuntien ilmastotyön vauhdittamiseen (ym.fi)