Paris Climate Conference: Finland joins the Soils Initiative of France

At the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris Finland has signed the “4 per 1000” Initiative of France with the aim to increase the carbon content of agricultural soils by 4‰ a year. This is in line with the annual global carbon dioxide emissions caused by human activity.

The objective of the “4 per 1000” Initiative is to launch measures that increase the soil carbon content, which is beneficial for the farmers as well. In the first stage the focus is on international research cooperation on soil carbon issues and stakeholder collaboration.

Soils have a major role in food security and climate change mitigation. Higher soil carbon content improves the productivity of soils and their capacity to adapt to changing conditions and contributes to the efforts to mitigate climate change.

– The importance of increasing the soil carbon content has been recognised in Finland as well. Measures to this end are a priority in the Climate Programme for Finnish Agriculture and research programme on the environmental impacts of agriculture, says Minister of Agriculture and the Environment Kimmo Tiilikainen.

The Initiative of France was officially launched today at the Agriculture Day of the Climate Conference in Paris. The Initiative is part of the Lima Paris Action Agenda by which the host country of last year’s Climate Conference Peru and France together with the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate change wish to promote and advance global climate initiatives.

Inquiries at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry: 
Jukka-Pekka Kataja, Special Adviser to the Minister, tel. +358 50 341 9934
Hanna Mattila, Ministerial Adviser, tel. +358 295 162 401
Birgitta Vainio-Mattila, Ministerial Adviser, tel. +358 295 162 346

4 per 1000 Initiative of France 
Climate Programme for Finnish Agriculture