The Nordic capital wants to become a model for the whole of Europe by focusing on building efficiency and low-emissions energy production. And by saying goodbye to coal once and for all.
A capital in full expansion, both in urban development and population. One that has decided to become a city with zero CO2 emissions by 2035 and in this way mitigate its own impact on climate change. Helsinki, the capital of Finland, is pursuing a step-by-step process targeting the three sectors most responsible for emissions: transport, electricity generation and above all heat production. This means that CO2 will need to be reduced by 40 per cent by 2030 and by 80 per cent by 2035, with the remaining 20 per cent offset.
It is snowing heavily, despite it being almost spring. But here we are in the northernmost capital in Europe, and good weather is still a long way off. "We want to become a model city in terms of climate policy, which means transforming the city so that citizens too can be climate-conscious," explains Mira Jarkko, from the city's urban planning and environment department. Heating is the sector that weighs most heavily in the city's total CO2 emissions. "Most of our emissions come from heating homes and buildings. Not from industry or the city itself," the public administration official continues. "Heating currently accounts for more than half of emissions. That is where we will have to work, together with energy companies and citizens."
According to the climate expert, emissions from buildings could be reduced by 80 per cent by focusing on the renovation of existing stock and on the energy efficiency of the new residential districts springing up across the city. This is evident walking through the streets of the new Kalasatama district: an open-air construction site where a large high-performance residential area is taking shape, featuring home automation, smart meters in every flat, the integration of renewable energy sources and a charging network for electric mobility. Here the young software programming and management company Nukka will equip buildings with a software platform capable of managing electricity consumption, optimising the district heating and cooling network, all through the real-time exchange of data managed by IoT (Internet of Things). In this way buildings become "smart" and it becomes possible to manage energy flows, reducing consumption and waste. And consequently emissions.
Today Helsinki has the largest and most efficient district heating system in the world, managed by the utility Helen, which serves 90 per cent of the city with heating and cooling. "We need a great deal of heat and practical solutions," explains Tuomas Ojanpera, the company's sales director, as he guides us through the enormous rooms of the Katri Vala heat plant, carved out of granite. "We consider buildings as large virtual production centres." A kind of large heat collectors that communicate with the entire underground network. Excess heat is recovered, stored tens of metres below sea level and used in heat pumps to produce the cooling required by buildings. An extremely efficient system, but one that is still powered by coal for more than half of its energy. To achieve CO2 emissions neutrality, the city will therefore have to give up fossil fuels and focus on biomass and other renewable resources, especially following parliament's recent approval of a plan to ban the use of coal by 2029.
Today one fifth of the city's emissions come from traffic. The goal is to reduce emissions by 69 per cent compared to 2005 levels. How? "We are evaluating the electrification of all mobility, using electricity that will need to be produced at least half from renewable sources such as solar," explains Mira Jarkko. The local public transport company Hsl has already purchased 30 new electric buses, while the goal is to have 30 per cent of the fleet electric by 2025. The city is also testing new forms of mobility, such as autonomous electric buses, which will represent an alternative for the so-called "last mile". Helsinki's challenge could make the city a permanent laboratory for the metropolises of the future.