Carbon Neutral Helsinki Action Plan

Carbon neutrality means striving to ensure that Helsinki’s operations do not cause global warming. The city’s goal is to reduce the direct emissions of the reference year 1990 by at least 80 per cent by 2030. The remaining emissions can be compensated. The emission reduction achieved by 2022 was 25 per cent.

The most significant sources of direct emissions in Helsinki are heating, transport and electricity. Carbon neutrality can be achieved especially with energy efficiency measures in buildings, low-emission transport solutions and increasing the share of renewable energy in heat and electricity production.

To make the change possible, the city has updated the Carbon Neutral Helsinki Emission Reduction Programme (pdf) in the spring of 2024. In the updated programme, special attention has been paid to the effectiveness of the measures. The measures will be updated annually in the future. You can follow the implementation of the programme’s measures and emission reductions on the Monitoring the emissions reduction page.

The change is made together

However, the city can only influence part of the emissions generated in Helsinki. In addition, indirect emissions outside the area are excluded from the carbon neutrality target. Most of both direct and indirect emissions are caused by the housing, transport and consumption of Helsinki residents. That is why all Helsinki residents are needed to curb climate change.