Recording: The speed of the Green Transition may be stalled by environmental conflicts, 19.3.2024

Reducing environmental regulation does not automatically streamline permitting processes, but can have the opposite effect. This is the conclusion of a legal study commissioned by Akordi.

A number of legislative reforms based on the government’s programme are currently being introduced to speed up the passage of green transition projects. Deregulation without a comprehensive assessment could lead to growing environmental and acceptability problems. In addition, permit decisions may increasingly be overturned in appeal procedures.

For example, the proposed exemption from planning obligations in the Building Act would reduce the regulatory burden at the initial stage, but projects exempted from planning would be more likely to fall through the appeals process.

“Measures to speed up the procedures should therefore be chosen so that conflicts and appeals in the later stages of the procedures do not create further delays and problems for projects,” says Ismo Pölönen, Professor of Environmental Law, who carried out the study.

The report stresses the need for a critical reassessment of environmental laws and basic administrative solutions.

Permitting can be made both faster and more acceptable

Environmental procedures in Finland are fragmented and lengthy. Although EU law has made environmental legislation more complex, the roots of fragmented environmental governance and the potential for remedies lie in national regulatory choices, according to the study.

“It is possible to speed up environmental procedures substantially without compromising environmental protection and acceptability. This can be achieved by merging successive procedures and centralising the tasks of environmental management authorities. At the same time, the conditions for permitting projects should be tightened, especially in sensitive areas,” Pölönen says.

At the same time, proactive procedures can be streamlined by increasing and developing collaborative monitoring during the project implementation phase. This will not slow down projects, but strengthen the sustainability and acceptability of the transition.

The study has been carried out as part of a project funded by the Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation, in which Akordi is building conflict anticipation methods for the green transition in Finland.

Contact

  • Ismo Pölönen, Professor of Environmental Law, University of Eastern Finland, tel. 040-5946024, ismo.polonen@uef.fi
  • Jonna Kangasoja, Chief Excecutive Officer, Akordi Oy, tel. 050-4412863 jonna@akordi.fi

 

In Finnish