In Finland, the city of Lappeenranta has prepared a climate program for the next ten years during the past winter. The city wanted to involve companies and residents in the preparation of the program. Therefore, Lappeenranta organized multiple workshops with different themes like energy, transport, and construction. Plenty of useful ideas and suggestions came up in the workshops. 

The last one of the workshop meetings was held at 1.4. as a virtual public meeting. Altogether three of the eight workshops were held on the internet. The Finnish Government decided on a meeting ban for more than ten people because of COVID-19 pandemic. 

Lappeenranta decided that the new climate program preparation should continue, and the workshops were moved to the internet. The response of the participants was positive, says the environmental director Ilkka Räsänen. 

− I am amazed by how fast everybody adopted the new working environment. The number of participants increased online, even though the working method was different. 

Lappeenranta has a target to be a climate-neutral by 2030. In the planning phase, the program consists of 80 % of emission decrease and 20 % of carbon sinks and compensations. 

The program will be in political handling later in April.

Source lappeenranta.fi