Fighting climate change, loss of biodiversity and poverty are the most important political missions.

We are facing one of the biggest tasks in the history of mankind. We need to stop climate change and loss of biodiversity and adjust to the damage that has already been done. This has to be achieved in a fair and rightful manner.

We need to change the way we produce our energy and food, how we live and how our traffic sector functions. We need to change the way we perceive economic growth and how we distribute the fruits of well-being.

Change affects people differently, and often those in the weakest position also find themselves the least equipped to adapt. Stopping climate change demands a lot from all of us, but especially so from us politicians. It is up to politicians to make sure that the coming change is just and fair: making sustainable choices needs to be easy for people, and not beyond the means of those who are the least well-off.

Stopping climate change and loss of biodiversity must be solved within this decade. We need more resources to our education and welfare systems.

Check out the Greens of Finland Election Program here.

Climate change & loss of biodiversity

Climate change and loss of biodiversity are the most pressing problems of mankind and the ones that affect us all. We are already late, but there is still hope: every tenth of a degree Celsius matters when we think of how the world will change during our lifetime. We have no time to wait.

Our entire society needs to change - not only to become emission free, but carbon negative. Thus carbon sink will be strong enough and more carbon dioxide will leave the atmosphere than will be emitted into it. Pollutive traffic and energy sources will have to be replaced with emission free and renewable choices. The carbon sink of forests and soil will have to be increased.

Climate change and the work to prevent it reaches far and wide, and this will change our society in a profound manner. We have to change the way we produce food and create energy, the way we think about work and industry, as well as our way of distributing welfare. Many people are worried that fighting climate change can mean expenses that will prove too much in a situation where a family’s or and individual’s finances are already stretched thin. Politicians need to make sure that people find it easy and affordable to make choices that are climate and nature friendly. The costs of preventing climate change and loss of biodiversity need to be shared equally.

The loss of species and degradation of habitats must be halted quickly. The Greens want to protect the untouched forests, mires and waterways in this country. Destroyed and degraded natural environments must be restored and nature must be integrated more into the urban environment. The environment must be protected more intensively in all human activities, such as construction and mining projects. Renewal of forestry is also necessary in order to safeguard the valuable natural environment, including carbon sinks and stocks. Fair and effective solutions must be found to reduce felling to sustainable levels.

Consequences of climate change and loss of biodiversity are already affecting the least well-off people, women and those at the most vulnerable situations. Fighting these are also global questions of equality.

Poverty and inequality

Employment has without doubt improved in Finland in recent years, but this development has not reached everyone. We have too much of child poverty and too many people dependent on breadlines. Today there are still roughly 5000 homeless people in Finland.

We cannot think that the time to fix social problems comes after fixing the country’s economy, because in the meantime, we are losing people all the time. We are losing people who we could have been saved with a little effort. The success of economic and employment politics must include other values besides employment rate and financial growth. Good economic and employment politics is sustainable socially as well as ecologically and does not dump the bill on those who are the least well-off.

Problems have to be tackled early on. Social exclusion can be prevented if we support children and young people. This calls for extensive mental care services and more support for families. Children need to have access to leisure activities and hobbies as well as sufficient support through comprehensive education and further studies. We need to aim at every young person completing a degree after comprehensive education. Social welfare has to be developed to resemble basic income, basic social security needs to be increased, and homelessness eradicated as soon as possible.

It is ok for eradicating poverty and homelessness to be costly, because that task is not only humane, it is a worthwhile effort that will pay for itself in time. The next government will have to make an ambitious and concrete programme to tackle inequality, one that is based on scientific information and research. The execution of the programme will have to be actively surveyed.

education

Education offers people a chance to be in charge of their own life and to realise their potential in the best possible way to benefit not only themselves but also the society they are part of. Education is one of the best ways to make sure that people are active citizens and that there is equality, in Finland as well as all over the world.

During this government period we have added billion euros more for education. In the next term more resources should be put especially in the comprehensive school and vocational education and to provide more contact teaching on different educational levels. Research funding has to be targeted to funding long-term research, so researchers will be able to focus on their work instead of spending time and energy on bureaucracy.

Education brings stability to the changing employment market. We need flexible possibilities for people to further educate themselves, be it while employed or during unemployment. This will guarantee everyone a chance to not lose touch and keep up to date with the changing demands of worklife. For some, this will mean learning an entirely new profession, some will only need to update their skills. In order to achieve this we must have an extensive supply of education and new ways of supporting education. Education is also a way to meet the challenges posed by climate change as well as poverty.

Maria

I am a Green Member of the Finnish Parliament and a researcher. I am also a former chair of the Greens of Finland (2019-2023) and a Minister of the Environment and Climate Change (2022-2023) and a Minister of the Interior (2019-2021). I have a PhD in social sciences (sociology) and a Master’s degree in social sciences (social politics). I was vice chair of Greens 2015-2019 and the chair of the union of Green youth and students, during 2013-2014. I am also a member of the Helsinki city council. I have a spouse and a small daughter and I enjoy cycling, exercising and collecting retro video games.