Nordic countries team up to cut construction emissions

The Nordic countries have intensified co-operation in recent years to curb climate emissions from the built environment, said the Ministry of the Environment in a press release on Monday.

This partnership focuses particularly on working to ensure corresponding principles for assessing and guiding the climate impact of construction in these countries.

“We have moved from words to deeds in Nordic climate co-operation for the construction and housing sector. Finland and Sweden took a step today to tackle construction emissions by opening services that were jointly created by openly sharing information and best practices,” said Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Krista Mikkonen.

The Finnish and Swedish construction emission databases provide impartial and comparable information openly and free of charge concerning the greenhouse gas emissions of construction products and processes.

Even though the information in the databases is country-specific, it has been collected and compiled in the same way, in partnership with the construction industries of the respective countries. The Nordic construction sector will benefit in particular from a uniform assessment of the climate impact of construction in the Nordic countries.

“Achieving the global climate target of the Paris Agreement will require a significant societal shift towards low emissions.….Together, the Nordic countries can show the potential for combining the climate transition with prosperity and good competitiveness,” said Swedish Minister for Housing Märta Stenevi.

“In autumn 2020, the Nordic ministers for housing and construction approved a new action plan for 2021-2024, seeking a more climate-friendly Nordic construction sector. This initiative is part of a work to realise a vision of the Nordic countries as the world’s most sustainable and integrated region by the year 2030. The emission database services opened by Finland and Sweden today are an important step towards ambitious goals for the Nordic construction industry, which has significantly lowered environmental and climate impacts,” said Nordic Council of Ministers Secretary-General Paula Lehtomäki.