The National Energy and Climate Strategy was published as a government report on 4 December 2025. During the parliamentary review, it is crucial to maintain the strategy’s objectives to secure wood availability for industry, safeguard the competitiveness of Finnish industry compared to peer countries, and attract investments to Finland.
The strategy impacts the forest industry in many ways. Our sector both uses and produces large volumes of low-emission energy, processes domestic wood into export products, and transports significant amounts of wood and finished goods. Therefore, the strategy must take into account—comprehensively and in balance—the diverse needs of the forest industry and its opportunities to continue developing in Finland.
Boost Competitiveness, Reduce Carbon and Harvest Leakage
The strategy includes several positive starting points. Given the challenging state of public finances, it is commendable that the strategy aims for economic growth and emphasizes that Finnish production facilities should not be closed or relocated abroad due to political decisions. This is also an important foundation for preventing carbon leakage—a risk the strategy explicitly acknowledges, as it could weaken Finland’s competitiveness and increase global environmental burdens through higher emissions.
However, the strategy does not propose continuing support for industrial electrification—a scheme that remains in place in many of Finland’s peer countries.
The strategy also recognizes the benefits of active forest management in enhancing forest vitality, biodiversity, and climate resilience. Finland must remain a competitive operating environment for a renewable and responsible forest sector, and it is important that forests are used actively, sustainably, and in a diversified manner.
The forest industry considers it essential that the strategy aims to secure sustainable forestry and ensure the availability of raw materials for the industry. It is also positive that, in responding to EU obligations in the land-use sector, the strategy seeks economically sensible measures that do not undermine the operating conditions of the domestic forest sector.
Finland Must Continue Strong EU Advocacy
The strategy rightly highlights the need for concrete EU advocacy to prevent the land-use sector’s calculated carbon sink deficit from shifting to the effort-sharing sector. However, it should have emphasized more strongly that the development of carbon and nature-value markets must not jeopardize the forest industry’s wood supply or lead to harvest leakage.
Active EU-level advocacy is also needed to advance the capture of biogenic carbon dioxide. The strategy aims to leverage the forest industry’s potential for carbon capture by influencing the development of EU financing instruments and through domestic pilot funding. The strategy also hints at regulatory measures, which raises concerns. Because the profitability of carbon capture and utilization remains uncertain, binding legislation should not be prepared.
Similarly, introducing a bioenergy tax would undermine biomass use and hinder bioeconomy development.
