Emission Monitoring

Turku has already halved its emission from the year 1990

The greenhouse gas emissions of Turku are calculated annually, using the local calculation method of the CO2 report, as part of the monitoring of the implementation of the city strategy and climate plan.

The base year of the climate plan, the baseline of emissions, is 1990. This is also the general baseline year of international climate policy. In accordance with the requirements of the Covenant of Mayors, emissions from monitoring years 2015 and 2020 as well as from future monitoring years 2025 and 2029 must be reported to the EU. The development of emissions will also be examined until year 2035.

According to the CO2 report calculation method, normalised greenhouse gas emissions in Turku in 2020 amounted to 606.5 kt CO2-eq. The most significant sectors causing emissions in 2020 were road transport (153.5 kt CO2-eq, 25%), electricity consumption (152.6 kt CO2-eq, 25%) and district heating (115.0 kt CO2-eq, 19%) (Figure 1). Compared to year 1990, a significant reduction in emissions has been achieved by increasing renewable energy in the production of district heating. Emissions from district heating have decreased approximately 70% between 1990 and 2020. Emissions from individual heating (69%), industry and working machinery (66%) as well as electricity consumption (42%) have also decreased significantly. Emissions from road transport have decreased by 27% between 1990 and 2020.

Implementation and monitoring

The City Council makes the decisions on the climate plan. The implementation of the plan is reported to the City Council annually. The targets and content of the plan are assessed and reviewed more thoroughly each council term.

  • The City Council is annually presented with a climate report that contains the development of emissions and carbon balance. The report provides an overall picture of the progression of climate measures, challenges, and new openings.
  • Turku also reports annually to the global CDP-ICLEI climate responsibility reporting system.
  • The implementation is reported every second year to the shared European system as required by the EU’s SECAP monitoring.
  • The attainment of the objectives set for 2021–2025–2029 will be checked each council term in connection with the updating of the climate plan. The plan is updated when necessary, and the results are reported to the shared European system in line with SECAP monitoring.

Figure 1. Turku’s greenhouse gas emissions by sector in 2020, calculated using the CO2 report method. The development of emissions has been normalised so that it equates to the climatological normal period 1981–2010. A five-year moving average has been used for the emission factor of electricity.

Figure 2. Normalised emissions in Turku in 1990, 2015 and 2020, calculated using the CO2 report method. The figure also includes the estimated development of emissions, carbon sinks and offsetting measures for years 2025, 2029 and 2035. The emission targets are presented on the left vertical axis, and the emissions per capita are presented on the right vertical axis.