Tuuli Kaskinen, CEO of the Climate Leadership Coalition, the largest nonprofit climate business network in Europe, gave an exclusive interview to Kitabistan, while her two-day visit to Baku within the framework of the "Nordic Talks: The Nordic Green Model" project which is carried out in collaboration with the embassies of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and with support from the Nordic Council of Ministers. We present that interview to our readers and viewers.

- Madam Tuuli Kaskinen, I'm really happy to welcome you to Baku as part of the Nordic Talks project. You are the CEO of the Climate Leadership Coalition, the largest nonprofit climate business network in Europe. I would like to begin the interview with the questions about the coalition you represent. This year the CLC is marking its ten years anniversary. What are the mission and goals of the CLC and how has it contributed to Europe's common climate goals over the past decade?

- First of all, thank you very much for the invitation. It's great to be here, especially now in the eve of COP29, which will mark as an important step in international climate policy. Climate Leadership Coalition was founded ten years ago by large Finnish companies from different sectors, to show that it's the companies who have solutions, who have the technologies and who are able to create that kind of solutions that are scalable globally for mitigating climate change. And for them to be able to do that, there needs to be a kind of quite good discussion between policymakers and businesses to make sure that the environment also works and supports this. It is important that companies and policymakers work together to create the environment where the best environmental products are also best for business. And that has been our main goal over these years. We have been working quite heavily with the EU. The EU's emission trading system is one of those we have supported over the years and at the moment we also work with global carbon pricing schemas to create a level playing field all over the world for the green and clean solutions to be those that are successful. So that's probably the most important field we have been working on over these years.

- Finland has a strong focus on renewable energy, particularly wind and solar power, which has seen significant growth in recent years. How does the CLC support policy development and decision making at the local and national levels in Finland to promote the green transition?

- First of all, for us, it has been important that green investments are in place, that the Finnish environment is such that global investments want to come to Finland and Finnish companies want to invest and make sure that we have the production that serves the local but also international market. We have been working together with Finnish government over the years to have a look at what kind of policies would support this development. And of course, probably the most important thing is predictability to make sure that this green transition we are seeing around us is really taking a step by step process to go further. So, in that sense, both the activities related to investment but also the carbon emissions targets have been important for us. Finland plans to be carbon neutral by 2035, and that's the long term plan for the country on how these things will be managed. And that creates a predictable environment for companies to know that, hey, this is the plan. Also, the permitting processes are actually quite an important topic because as there are a lot of local investments, a lot of local new facilities to be built, there are a lot of permitting processes going through the society.
So, people have to decide, and the government has to decide if it's possible to build all these facilities. And making sure that these permitting processes work fast is one of the topics we have been working quite a lot.

- Madam Kaskinen, how does CLC encourage companies to reduce their carbon footprint and to take action to transition to renewable energy? And what benefits do companies get from that?

- First of all, companies have to take a look at what's their carbon footprint and have a plan on how to reduce that. We have encouraged our members and other companies to take a look at the Science Based Targets initiative, which is a model which brings emission reduction targets of companies in line with the ones with nations. So, Science Based Targets is kind of the first step for companies. But then, we have also been working with the concept of carbon handprint, where the idea is that the company creates products that support emission reductions through the value chain. So, if there is a machine, for example, sold from Finland, and it creates emission reductions in other countries, that's the systemic change we can drive globally. And measuring and understanding that is also important for companies. So, we encourage them to do both of these, to know what their own emissions are and to boost systemic change through the products and services they are able to provide to the international market. I think the best and most important thing for companies from this is that, what is known from the global markets is that, the green market is growing faster than the so-called old market. So, actually, if you compare the green market and green products market into the brown markets, the global growth is faster. And of course, for a nation, it's important to have products that are on those markets that are growing. At the moment, global markets are demanding more of green products than what countries and companies are able to produce. So, in that sense, it's best for business as well, for companies to be able to serve that kind of solutions.

- We know in Finland citizens have a strong sense of collective responsibility. What role do communities and local organizations play in promoting climate action, also fostering a sense of collective responsibility?

- That's a good question. I think, first of all, science has done a very, very important job in this. So, science has been the one to say that, hey, we need to go below two degrees, we need to go to 1.5 degrees. The consequences are this and that on different levels. And they have created us the frame into which the green transition has to be fitted. But behind that, I think, the NGOs and the local activities and government work has been going like not hand in hand, but I think in turns. Like sometimes it is more like the NGOs who are driving the change if the government is coming a bit more late. And sometimes government is also taking quite big leaps in this process. So, I think all these three bodies are very much needed, also from the company’s point of view, to make sure that the green transition and the clean transition we are seeing is happening in a predictable way.

- Madam Kaskinen, thank you very much for your interesting responses.

- Thank you very much.

Malak Hajiyeva

23.10.2024