The Environmental Protection Unit
The environmental protection sector covers a wide variety of issues. FANC is active in issues ranging from sustainable energy policy and climate and development to chemicals, waste policy, and sustainable production and consumption patterns. We have two expert activist groups, one on energy and climate, and another one on sustainable production and consumption.
In the fight against climate change, we follow the international climate negotiations and send our representative to the major meetings. To find solutions, we work hand-in-hand with other Finnish citizens' groups, politicians, government and local authorities, and progressive companies. We promote energy saving as the most powerful tool, but we also try to bring along more sustainable renewable energy forms.
Paying full attention to the environmental context of the development crisis, we try to bridge the gap between traditional Finnish development aid thinking that has a strong social orientation and modern climate-proof concept of the third world development. We promote a more diverse information flow from the Third World also by monitoring the actions of Finnish companies abroad. This happens through an active membership in FinnWatch, a Finnish watchdog surveying bad international corporate behaviour.
In the neighbouring regions, such as in Russian Carelia, FANC has had years of successful cooperation with local groups on forest protection and simultaneous enhancement of sustainable livelihoods.
Despite insufficient resources, we keep following some important issues simply because very few, or in some cases nobody else, in Finland does. These issues include, e.g., chemicals (in the future also nanotechnology), and waste policy.
Waste policy is one of the key areas of environmental protection when we strive for a sustainable resource usage. The three key waste issues are:
1) waste prevention needs finally to be taken seriously,
2) biowaste is an underutilized resource that does not belong to the waste pit,
3) a sustainable Finnish waste management system mustn't and cannot be based on a row of massive new waste incinerator facilities.
Nuclear power: problematic and dangerous
Do we have the right to make use of uranium resources and just leave the resulting waste for the next thousand generations to worry about? We think the answer is a clear "No!" The climate crisis can be solved without this risky business, and we are actively working to delete nuclear power from the list of options.
All Western European uranium mines have been abandoned for environmental and health reasons. In addition, an operating nuclear power plant is always a risk, even if a serious reactor disaster is unlikely. Close calls have occurred in Sweden, too, where reactor safety should be at a high level. In addition, nuclear power enables the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the form of both nuclear weapons and so-called ”dirty” bombs. The issue of final disposal of used nuclear fuel has not yet been resolved.
A tangible impact: the EKOenergy label for renewable energy
Consumers can have a real impact on the environment by purchasing EKOenergy-labelled energy for their homes or businesses. The environmental impacts of energy generation are considerable. Even renewable energy production may devastate ecosystems and weaken fish and bird populations. The EKOenergy criteria strive for true sustainability, not mere renewability. FANC grants the EKOenergy label to electricity and heat produced by biomass, solar, wind, or hydropower, that satisfy the additional sustainability criteria.
The more consumers buy EKOenergy, the more incentive energy companies have to invest in sustainable energy production.
EKOenergy is an international label. We aim to make it known all over the world. If the EKOenergy label is not yet operating in your country, contact your local environmental NGO (non-governmental organisation) and introduce EKOenergy to them. They can get in touch with us on www.ekoenergy.org. The website also gives more information on the label.
If you live in Finland, you can request quotes for EKOenergy from energy companies on www.ekoenergy.org.
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