Proceedings World Bioenergy 2010

issues in the municipalities. The factors selected most
often were employment, use of natural resources and
climate change. The received answers gave a good
picture and guidelines on how to collect more detailed
and specific information in the future. The main
conclusions from the survey can be found in the
following sections.
4.1 Optimism or not at the region
Decision makers were asked to describe the
atmosphere for renewable energy in their
working/residential areas. There has been a positive
change in attitudes in last years. There is also a
willingness to act but, on the other hand, there is a lack of
actions. Renewable energy sources are considered as a
possibility. On the other hand, “I feel that” –way of
thinking can be still seen.
The received information was also experienced
insufficient and some of the respondents had negative
experiences. Also the concepts used by decision makers
have not been consistent.
4.2 Drivers and barriers
Decision-makers find the existing good examples,
such as raw material resources (mostly from forests) and
enterprises (in the region), as very effective drivers. Both
knowledge and expertise can be found from the region.
University of Eastern Finland, North Karelia University
of Applied Sciences, Finnish Forest Research Institute
and European Forest Institute are located in the region.
Despite that, there is still difficulties accessing the
information, for example, on substance or financing.
Inefficient decision-making, such as indecision or
toing and froing (waffling) does occur. On one hand,
there is the lack of information in the background and, on
the other hand, the lack of funding and resources.
4.3 What kind of outside help would be needed?
Respondents needed objective and comparative
information, as well as economic and technical
consultancy.
5 NORTH KARELIA CLIMATE AND ENERGY
PROGRAMME 2020
The Regional Council of North Karelia is
establishing a “Climate and energy programme 2020” for
the region. Programme work proceeds according to the
regional working plan. Smallest-project provides
information from diverse surveys such as comparative
municipal level information and the actual baseline in
terms of energy use and production. Project operates
according to the model described in Figure 2.
Cooperation consists of the work in steering group and
themed teams, diverse surveys, and organizing
municipality events. So called pre-discussions precede
the actual municipality tour. During the pre-discussions
some of the municipalities and regional development
companies are interviewed to receive more information
for designing the municipal events. In addition,
interviewers are trained unify and harmonize the
interviews.
After the municipal events there will be regional and
county level seminars to disseminate the results.
58 world bioenergy 2010
Figure 2: Operational model between the project and the
Regional Council of North Karelia
6 CONCLUSIONS
Decision-makers have positive attitude toward
renewable energy investments, but at the same time there
is a lack of actions. There is clearly need for
comprehensive advisory services and training in all
levels.
Smallest-project is initiating the Decision Makers
Academy (DMA) -concept. The Academy will gather
local decision- makers for follow-up seminars. Seminars
will be themed to different aspects of climate and energy.
The DMA concept is being developed and tested along
the “Climate and energy programme 2020”.
References
[1] Savikko,R. 2009. Climate Policy in Finnish
Municipalities, Association of Finnish Local and
Regional Authorities (AFLRA).