Helsinki launches Climate Watch to track city’s emission reductions

In their aim to become carbon neutral by 2035, the City of Helsinki recently introduced the Climate Watch, an online tool that allows everyone to monitor and keep track of the city’s progress in achieving the 2035 goal.

In accordance with the Carbon-Neutral Helsinki 2035 Action Plan, the city launched 147 measures to reduce emissions and to attain the goal of carbon neutrality. This means that after 2035, activities taking place in Helsinki will not contribute to future warming of the climate. No greenhouse gases will be emitted from transportation and the city’s buildings will be heated and electricity produced without resulting emissions.

Data available for everyone

The Climate Watch tool is a service built up of data on each of the 147 measures, providing information on their corresponding progress. By using the tool, anyone can follow the progress of the 2035 Action Plan and the impact that each individual measure has in achieving the 2035 goal. To achieve carbon neutrality by 2035, the city aims to reduce its emissions by 80% and compensate the remaining 20%.

“We prepared our Carbon-Neutral Helsinki 2035 Action Plan very transparently and would like to carry on this way also while reporting on its implementation and assessing the next steps. I believe that we will find the Climate Watch to be an efficient tool. Other local authorities are also free to make use of it”, says Esa Nikunen, the director general of the City of Helsinki environmental services.

The Climate Watch has already gained ample traction in media and curiosity from other cities. There has been interest for developing a national version of the tool as well as adopting the platform to monitor the emission reduction progress in other cities in Finland.  

Introducing a collaborative approach

This unique platform for monitoring climate protection and emissions reductions is currently available in Finnish, with an English version underway. Future functionalities of the tool will allow city residents to provide feedback on the emission reduction measures in addition to providing a space for locals to express their views on how they can be involved in the carbon reduction measures.

For Helsinki, collaboration across actors is key to achieveing the goal of carbon neutrality. Consequently, Helsinki is making a shift from the traditional city-driven participation into collective problem solving where the city is an enabler for citizen-driven climate action. Through the collaborative approach, Helsinki aims to make it easy and accessible for locals and visitors of the city alike to adopt a climate-friendly lifestyle.

The Climate Watch is based on work carried out during EIT Climate-KIC Ideation and Pathfinder projects in 2018, where the basis for a Collective Action Scheme was built. The Scheme introduces a set of interoperable tools, services and user interfaces that are aimed for citizens, civil servants, researchers, political decision makers and businesses.

For more information on the Climate Watch and to follow Helsinki’s progress in their 2035 goal, visit ilmastovahti.hel.fi.