The city of Lappeenranta is taking part in the climate summit arranged in Madrid on December 9. 200 countries have been invited to the event.
City government's Second Chairperson Hanna Holopainen, a Member of Parliament, presents the city's climate actions in a seminar arranged during the summit, where the actions and presence of cities in climate issues is discussed.
Environmental Manager Ilkka Räsänen, who joins Holopainen in the climate summit, tells that the city's portion of the seminar concentrates on the scalability of research and innovation in climate change mitigation.
- Aspects related to the theme include applications of energy technology, such as synthetic fuel captured from air, virtual power plants of buildings, the heat accumulator, technology of electric traffic as well as protein manufactured from air.
Räsänen is pleased that the city is participating in the summit, since Lappeenranta has advanced well in actions against climate change.
– The Madrid summit is huge and its theme fits well to an internationally expanding Lappeenranta. The role of cities in climate change mitigation is growing, and the interest in cities' actions is increasing all around the world.
– We have implemented many aspects quickly and the city's own operations are close to being carbon neutral. In particular, the collaboration between LUT, the city and companies has aroused interest across the world.
However, Lappeenranta has still plenty left to do, according to Räsänen.
– We are still at the beginning stages of implementing actions to the entire city region. In addition, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced in Lappeenranta is still at least four times higher than necessary, including consumption.
Lappeenranta is a pioneer city in renewable energy and clean environments that has a passion for problem-solving. We are the climate capital of Finland filled with new energy, out-of-the-box thinking and international expertise. In a university and travel city with ca 73 000 citizens, with only two hours from Helsinki in southeastern Finland, and at the border of Russia and the EU, we dare, and we do. The innovative operational environment with its makers as well as the great networks of Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) provide an environment for international business and expansion. The accessibility of Lappeenranta is excellent due to an international airport.
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