Recipes for Systemic Change - Helsinki Design Lab

GHG emissions. For instance, Helsingin Energia, Helsinki's municipallyowned energy corporation provides the city with all of its electricity anddistrict services under the city's indirect leadership.Five Finnish municipalities have initiated a carbon neutrality projectcalled Carbon Neutral Municipalities (CANEMU) that will attempt toachieve emission reductions ahead of EU targets. The project will provideprototype solutions for the near (two to five years) and long (six totwenty years) terms in the municipalities of Mynämäki (8,000 inhabitants),Uusikaupunki (16,000 inhabitants), Kuhmoinen (2,700 inhabitants),Padasjoki (3,600 inhabitants) and Parikkala (6,100 inhabitants). The FinnishEnvironment Institute (SYKE) will coordinate implementation throughvoluntary agreements and demonstration-based business practices. Its firstphase began in 2008 in collaboration with TEKES and Uusikaupunki isalready projecting a 30% GHG emissions reduction by 2014.City and sub-national regional leaders are generally best suited todesign strategies to address their infrastructure needs, land use, geography,and economic profiles. Central governments, in turn, can set outthe broad goals and frameworks to encourage action in the right areas;they can also provide needed funding or other incentives for city initiatives.Together they could work closer together to develop and exchangeinformation about possible policy responses, to experiment with newsolutions, to share experience and broaden and replicate successful initiatives.(Gurría, Angel. “Competitive Cities and Climate Change.” 2ndAnnual Meeting of the OECD Roundtable on Urban Strategy of Mayorsand Ministers, Milan. 10 Oct. 2008.)Some cities, such as Tempere, are acting more aggressively at local levelsto achieve GHG reductions. This activity, although independent of nationalinterventions, is often in collaboration with international partner networks.Tempere has now integrated climate change-driven strategies into all of itsactivities following its participation in the Peer Review for European SustainableUrban Development project in 2004. Tempere's climate initiativeis self-directed, but the national government is providing some outcomebasedprogram financing.256