Finnish gov't praises climate agreement, activists call for more efforts

While the Finnish government praised the climate change agreement reached in Paris, Finnish environmentalists emphasized the challenges remaining.

Finnish Minister for the Environment Kimmo Tiilikainen described the agreement on climate change reached in Paris on Saturday as "a turning point", but noted that it is not perfect.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila said Finland wants the agreement to bring a fast change with an impact.

Finnish environment and development organizations said in a joint statement on Saturday night that the measures the governments have pledged may not be enough to reach the temperature goals.

"The emission cutback levels that the countries have promised would lead to a nearly three degree warming," said Kaarina Kolle, climate specialist of the World Wildlife Fund. She underlined the need of early action.

Finnish organizations said the emission targets of Finland and the EU have been outdated now, due to the new and more accurate defining of temperature.

Jonas Bistrom, an analyst for Kepa, a Finnish umbrella organization for civil society development cooperation organizations expressed concern that financing could be taken out of the existing development aid.

He told newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet that "rich countries shall continue to finance the climate change of the poorer, at least 100 billion dollars from 2020 and new goals will be defined to 2025. That is the good news. The bad news is that taking that money from development aid has not been prohibited." Endit