Development of an information service to support the voluntary carbon market and preliminary service
implementation study (HIMA)

Projects related to the Climate Plan for the Land Use Sector -page

Participants

Natural Resources Institute Finland

Description

Duration: 2021

The Finnish carbon neutrality goal requires a reduction of emissions from the land use sector as
well as strengthening of both carbon sinks and carbon storage. Domestic private sector carbon
offset projects offer one approach to increasing the net sink of carbon. At present, however, the
voluntary compensation market in Finland is quite diverse and the country lacks a centralized
platform providing information on what constitutes good carbon compensation.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry funded a preliminary study on carbon compensation
projects in the land use sector that examined information needs of carbon compensation actors
and ways in which the state could support them. The preliminary study is expected to be
completed by the end of 2020. The findings of the study will be used in this project.

Based on the identified themes of the preliminary study and using the means of service design,
this project will map the information needs of carbon compensation providers in the Finnish land
use sector, potential compensation buyers and information-seeking citizens, and find out how the
Natural Resources Center (Luke) best can support these stakeholders. In this project, the on-going information needs of stakeholders will be addressed in a concrete manner by designing a
potentially interactive website-type information service and developing solutions for its technical
implementation.

The information service will provide information that allows compensation providers to operate in
a good, high-quality and transparent manner, and makes it easier for compensation providers to
communicate the climate benefits of their actions and on which the underlying calculations are
based. For compensation buyers, the service will provide information that enables them to assess
the quality, effectiveness and reliability of various compensation services. By raising awareness of
compensatory measures, compensation projects can be guided towards areas where they are
most beneficial and where they effectively will help facilitate the transformation towards
sustainability.

Hiilikompensaatioinfo.fi (in Finnish)