Tag: Finland

Finland released a new government programme in which it pledges to become a carbon neutral state by 2035 and the world’s first fossil fuel free welfare society. This coincides with another announcement last week by Chile, which also pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050.

The Ministry of Transport and Communication of Finland announced that the legislative reform concerning the safety of passenger ships will be completed once the related decrees are specified and clarified. Amendments will be made to the Decree on Inspecting Foreign Vessels in Finland. 

The Secretary of the Nordic Council of Ministers and Nordic Council of Ministers published a report focusing on four main perspectives on the issues of seasonal tourism in the Arctic: local community perspectives; employment and workforce issues; the Arctification of northern tourism; and global environmental change.

A Finnish company plans to establish a railway to connect north Finland and Norway’s Kirkenes port. This aims to link potential Arctic shipping routes, while the cost of this project is estimated to be between 3-5 billion euros. The Port of Kirkenes is located above the Arctic Circle, 350 km from the northernmost parts of Finland’s railway network. The line of the railway could begin at Kemijarvi or Kolari in Finland.

Port of HaminaKotka in Finland published its January - April 2019 throughput, according to which it handled 5.98 million tonnes of cargo, increasing by 12% year-on-year. The transshipment of export cargo increased by 24.1% to 4.58 million tonnes.

According to Reuters, the US refused to sign an agreement in the Arctic due to discrepancies over climate change wording, risking the cooperation in the polar region at the sharp edge of global warming. The meeting between eight nations in Finland's Rovaniemi on Tuesday, May 7, was aiming to provide a two-year agenda to balance the challenge of global warming, with sustainable development of mineral wealth.

Nokia and Finnish private LTE provider Ukkoverkot have agreed to a four-year deal in order to bring connectivity, automation, and intelligence to the Port of Kokkola, Finland. The project will be covering computing, automation, and artificial intelligence. The private LTE network will use the local 2.6 GHz radio band, provided to the port by Ukkoverkot as part of the deal.

One of the Finnish priorities that Ambassador Aleksi Härkönen, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials, emphasizes as a success, is meteorological cooperation. Mr. Härkönen said that they have already achieved a breakthrough when the WMO and national meteorological institutes decided to actively contribute to meteorological cooperation in the Arctic.

Costa Smeralda, the first LNG-fueled cruise ship of the Costa Cruises fleet, suffered a minor fire on the deck 15, while undergoing the final stage of construction at the Finnish shipyard Meyer Turku, Monday afternoon. There was stored equipment on fire, started by welding inside the ship.

In case a ship pollutes the waters within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of a country but does not call at any of that country's ports, it has not always been clear who has the right to impose penalties. However, according to North P&I Club, a recent European Court of Justice decision comes to provide some clarity on the issue.