Climate change solutions receive award
The winning solutions are realistic to implement, and can make a real difference, says Environmental Analyst Katariina Vartiainen of NIB. She represented the Bank on the jury of the international competition “Practical solutions to combat climate change”.
The competition arranged by the Nordic Council of Ministers looked for new or not yet established business concepts, practices and technologies to assist municipalities and other local and regional actors to better control the effects of climate change.
Both NIB and its sister organisation Nordic Environment Finance Corporation NEFCO were represented on the jury. The winners of the competition were announced by NIB President Johnny Åkerholm during a sustainability conference in Turku in early February.
First prize was shared by the collaboration between Snowpower AB and the local council of Västernorrland in Sweden, and the City of Tampere from Finland. Snowpower’s winning solution is called “Snow cooling”. It is a method for storing snow during the winter and using it for cooling purposes during warmer seasons. The solution is already used in one hospital in Sweden, where energy savings of up to 90% have been observed, and at Sapporo Airport in Japan.
The winning solution of the City of Tampere is a project called “ECO2: Eco-efficient Tampere 2020”. This is a strategic project with the objective of implementing the climate commitment of the city. ECO2 was started in 2010 and the scope contains the development of new, low-carbon city planning methods to facilitate growth in sustainable business and become a forerunner in climate policy.
NIB’s representative on the jury, Environmental Analyst Katariina Vartiainen, says that the Bank contributed to the evaluation of the proposed solutions with its experience from projects in the Baltic Sea region.
“Together with NEFCO, we have a lot of projects ongoing in these areas. We also have the competence to evaluate different kinds of projects from a financial point of view, and the instruments to assess the environmental aspects.”
She emphasizes that the competition was all about finding solutions that combat climate change.
“The jury was looking for solutions that reduce emissions, especially green house gas emissions. The selected projects were to be easily adapted on the municipality and local authority level, since municipalities and especially cities generate a significant part of the greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Therefore they have a huge possibility to control and decrease emissions as well.”
The chosen solutions were also to have cross-sectoral benefits and a broader environmental impact. Katariina Vartiainen adds that both of the winners are excellent examples of solutions that are easy to implement.
“The winning solutions are already in place, and both feasibility studies and cost benefit studies have been done. They are also easily adaptable for different areas of operation, and they have clearly defined goals and targets. And regarding the snow cooling system, it was nice to show that it is possible to take an old, traditional method like storing snow and modernise it into something that can benefit modern society,” says Ms Vartiainen.
The competition was arranged by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the local and regional authorities of Finland, Norway and Sweden. Seventy-nine organisations from seven countries participated in the competition. In his speech to the winners, NIB President Johnny Åkerholm commented:
“This competition addresses the urgent importance of turning words into actions. At the same time, it puts focus on regional cooperation, as well as on concrete technical solutions ready to be implemented.”