Goal: Take urgent action to tackle climate change and its impacts

This goal has two targets:

  • Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters
  • Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.

Climate change adaptation

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency’ performance agreement with the Ministry of Transport and Communications for 2024–2027 imposes on the FTIA the obligation to monitor the energy efficiency of the transport system and the attraction of sustainable transport, including climate change adaptation measures. In practical transport infrastructure management work, climate resilience and the identification and prevention of the risks and harm caused by climate change are increasingly emphasised. The aim is to identify and prioritise the vulnerabilities with the highest impact in the transport network caused by climate change, the measures and management methods required by them, and to ensure that these measures are implemented in the operations of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency. 

Climate resilience is a cross-cutting aspect of the entire life cycle of transport infrastructure management from land use and design to the construction, maintenance and use of transport infrastructure. In the context of climate resilience, it is important to identify relevant phenomena and the changes predicted to take place in them, such as temperature fluctuations, rainfall and storms, and their impact mechanisms on both transport infrastructure assets and operability. This means that the necessary adaptation and preparedness measures can be anticipated and cost-efficiently included in plans for the most vulnerable sites. 

Achievements in 2024

Collaborating with the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency completed a report on Climate change scenarios in transport infrastructure maintenance (in Finnish), which presents long-term scenarios for weather phenomena significant for transport infrastructure management. 

In 2024, a background study on the vulnerability of the transport network related to impacts of climate change was launched. It examined the impacts of climate change on transport infrastructure and assessed the vulnerabilities of transport infrastructure assets based on climate scenarios and transport infrastructure characteristics. In addition, a new method was tested to examine flood risks and track buckling risks caused by heat and vulnerabilities in the railway network.

The safety and reliability risks posed by weather conditions to railways were assessed, and measures to mitigate the risks were defined in a cooperation project with different actors in the railway system.

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency participated in the work of the national Sendai network, which promotes the management of climate risks and other disaster risks in cooperation between different administrative branches. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency is actively involved in European and international climate change adaptation cooperation with road and rail sector organisations (including CEDR, PIARC, UIC, PRIME). Their development projects have examined the impacts of extreme weather events (including rainstorms, high temperatures, strong winds) on road and rail infrastructure and developed methods for identifying and assessing the vulnerabilities and risks of the transport network and carrying out climate change adaptation measures.

 

Climate policy promotion

Kivikkoinen merenranta kesäisessä säässä, taustalla pieni punainen mökki ja yksinäinen puu, avomeren horisontti näkyy kaukana.
 

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency has several roles in promoting Finland’s national climate policy. The FTIA produces information on the impacts of transport infrastructure and infrastructure maintenance as well as the impacts of reconciling transport and land use on climate change mitigation and adaptation. This information is used for the preparation of national climate strategies and plans together with other central government bodies. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency is also tasked to achieve national climate change targets and implement policies associated with the state-owned transport infrastructure networks. 

Key national strategies and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency’s role in them

Finland’s transport policy is guided by the National transport system plan (Transport 12). The Government approved the previous Transport 12 plan in April 2021, and the plan is currently being updated. The three main objectives of the draft plan, published in December 2024, are functionality, safety and sustainability. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency implements the Transport 12 plan for state-owned transport infrastructure networks. Key instruments for this include transport infrastructure management programmes (investment programme, planning programme and basic plan for managing the state-owned transport infrastructure network) and assessment of their impacts. Reducing emissions is part of promoting the ecological sustainability goal. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency also participates in updating the Transport 12 plan.

The climate policy planning system under the Climate Change Act (423/2022) provides starting points for the development of the transport system. It includes the Long-term climate change policy plan drawn up once every ten years, the Medium-term climate change policy plan (KAISU) drawn up each government term and the National climate change adaptation plan (KISS2030). The medium-term plan KAISU contains an action plan to reduce emissions in the effort sharing sector. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency also contributes to implementing the policies of the KAISU plan on the circular economy and emission reduction measures in terms of transport, machinery and public procurement. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency plays an important role in reducing climate emissions from infrastructure construction and procurement.   
 

Achievements in 2024

Assessment method for low-carbon infrastructure construction introduced

The objective of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency is to promote climate impact assessment and low-carbon, life-cycle sustainable solutions, taking the entire life cycle of transport infrastructure management into account. The implementation of the assessment method for low-carbon infrastructure construction published in 2023 has continued in 2024 by means of providing support for including low-carbon assessments in planning. The assessment method for low-carbon construction has made it possible to integrate the climate impacts caused by infrastructure construction into project impact assessment and decision-making. In 2024, a policy was also adopted to expand the assessment of and monitor the realisation of CO2 emissions as part of the construction projects of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres) in projects for which a project evaluation has been carried out.

The development of evaluation tools and information management has continued in extensive cooperation within the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and with key partners. Cooperation with the alliance developing the Ihku computing service has been intensified, and key development needs for Ihku emission calculation have been programmed for 2025–2026. Key development needs support increasingly consistent utilisation of emissions data as part of project impact assessment. As part of developing the infrastructure construction emissions database, the Finnish Environment Institute has put together a comprehensive overview of the most typical emissions from transport infrastructure projects covering more than 500 projects. The active maintenance and development of the database for infrastructure construction (co2data.fi) was continued together with the Finnish Environment Institute. Linking emission data to cost data also serves the wider production of consistent data to support decision-making. 

In 2024, emission calculation in accordance with the assessment method for low-carbon infrastructure construction was piloted in projects in an earlier phase of planning. In addition, a track maintenance pilot was carried out in maintenance area 3, which extends from Riihimäki to Kokkola and covers approximately 850 kilometres of tracks, about 800 turnouts, 35 traffic operating points and about 500 level crossings. The maintenance area also includes the Tampere freight and passenger railway yard and the Seinäjoki and Kokkola railway yards. The track maintenance pilot also included piloting the use of renewable fuels and emission calculation for the period from June 2024 to March 2025.

Emissions from machinery and construction site transport were calculated on the basis of actual fuel consumption. In 2024, fuel consumption during the pilot was approximately 85,000 litres. Most of the spent fuel, 65%, was renewable diesel or renewable fuel oil. Fossil fuels accounted for 35% of fuel consumption. Emissions related to fuel consumption mainly consisted of the consumption of fossil diesel (49%) and fossil fuel oil (25%). The use of renewable fuels instead of fossil fuels saved approximately 148,000 kg CO2e in emissions, which is about 7% of the total emissions from the contract during the review period (June–December 2024). If only fossil fuels had been used as fuel, the emissions from fuels and cargo in the contract would have been 2.2 times higher.

Carbon accounting was piloted in the Main Road 6 at Koria project

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency introduced its new assessment method for low-carbon infrastructure construction in the Main Road 6 at Koria project, which was published at the end of 2023. The project will improve the main road and replace the bridge over the railway with a new one. Included in the contract. Emissions reductions achieved during the implementation phase can be verified. For example, lime cement was replaced with GTC mixture, which has significantly reduced the project’s total emissions.

The carbon emissions generated during the life cycle of an infrastructure project are divided into three phases: emissions before commissioning the infrastructure, during the use phase and at the end of the life cycle. Emissions from the Main Road 6 at Koria project are calculated over a 50-year life cycle. The most significant sources of emissions are the materials used in construction. In the use phase, carbon emissions are mostly caused by the need to renew structures. Therefore, more sustainable pavement material brings life-cycle savings to the emissions from the project.

Infografiikka kuvaa infrahankkeen päästölähteitä elinkaaren eri vaiheissa: ennen käyttöönottoa (materiaalit, kuljetukset, rakentaminen, maankäyttö), käyttövaiheessa (väylän käyttö, kunnossapito, korjaaminen, energiankäyttö) ja elinkaaren loppuvaiheessa (purkaminen, kuljetus, kierrätys, loppusijoitus).
 

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency aims to promote low-carbon, life-cycle sustainable solutions in transport infrastructure planning, construction and infrastructure management. Emission calculations are drawn up to produce information on emissions from infrastructure construction and to identify significant potential for reducing emissions.

Nordic cooperation

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency actively promotes sustainability and climate issues in the cooperation networks of Nordic transport authorities at NordFoU and the Nordic Road Association (NVF). NordFoU focuses on the coordination of R&D projects between transport infrastructure organisations, which is promoted through joint research projects. Cooperation on climate issues has been carried out for a long time in both the NordLCA and NordLCA+ projects.

The latest cooperation project NordCLIMPACT was launched in 2024. Iceland also joined the project in addition to the Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish transport infrastructure authorities. As far as the NVF is concerned, Finland’s four-year Presidency of the association began in 2024. Alongside the working groups set up earlier, a new thematic group coordinated by the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency was launched. It focuses especially on the sharing of climate and environmental information between the NVF working groups.

NordCLIMPACT project

 

The NordCLIMPACT project continues the development of the life cycle calculation of transport infrastructure projects, which has previously been promoted under the NordFoU in the NordLCA and NordLCA+ projects. The NordCLIMPACT project, launched in June 2024, focuses on Nordic cooperation and the development of common, sustainable and climate-friendly operating models in the field under the following themes:

  • Integration of emission calculation and interfaces with BIM models for infrastructure projects
  • The impacts of the EU taxonomy and the green transition on actors in the field of transport infrastructure management in the Nordic countries
  • More comprehensive utilisation of LCA and climate information in decision-making and procurement
  • Sharing good practices and coordinated development of LCA calculation tools, methods and data.

 

Calculation of the environmental impacts of paving (Environmental Product Declaration)

Tieasfalttityömaa keväisessä maisemassa; suuri asfalttikone ja jyrä tekevät uutta päällystettä, ja työntekijät oransseissa turvavarusteissa ohjaavat työmaata metsän laidalla.
 

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency has been developing pavement procurement towards low emissions for a long time. The aim is to take environmental impacts into account as part of the procurement of pavement contracts. Environmental declarations for asphalt and project-specific environmental impact calculations (accounting using actual performance data) have been identified as a means to promote the matter and produce the necessary information for guiding procurement.

The paving sector acquired a common tool for implementing environmental declarations and environmental impact calculations in 2021. In 2022, separate calculation rules (AsfalttiPCR) were prepared for the Finnish paving industry to guide emission calculation. Emission calculation in contracts was piloted for the first time in 2023.

In 2024, restrictions in compliance with AsfalttiPCR were updated in the calculation tool, which made it possible to specify and expand the calculations. The contractors made and provided calculations of asphalt mass emissions covering modules from A1 to A5. However, there is still a need to update the calculation tool with some working methods used in Finland (e.g. the remix method) and other calculation definitions.

In 2024, the functionality of the tool was examined based on the calculations and the calculation results obtained. This enabled estimating the average emissions of traditional paving masses and methods. Although calculations were obtained from different contractors around Finland, the results were well in line with each other. Last year, clients were also assisted in the utilisation of the results of environmental impact calculations. In 2025, the calculation of the environmental impacts of paving contracts will be further specified and increased.  
 
In 2024, a bonus model was also developed for paving procurement, which can be used to steer contractors towards reducing emissions. Based on the calculations for 2024, a limit value has been set for individual contracts in 2025. When a contractor stays below the limit set, they can earn a bonus.

The future aim will be obtaining even more specific information on emissions from the pavement sector and different paving methods as well as on their development. The idea is that contractors can themselves decide and demonstrate how they can achieve the end result with the lowest possible emissions. However, in the future, it is essential to consider the life-cycle emissions in their entirety as, for instance, the lifetime of paving plays a significant role in the emissions caused. In the raw materials and manufacturing of paving, it is advisable to focus on reducing the factors that cause the greatest emissions. Currently, the most significant emissions from paving work are generated in the asphalt manufacturing phase.