In December 2019 the European Commission presented the European Green Deal, the key plan to advance the EU’s climate agenda. On 27 May 2020 the European Commission presented a €750 billion economic stimulus plan that along with a revised proposal for the EU’s 2021-2027 budget should help mitigate the shock from the coronavirus pandemic and pave the way for a sustainable future.
How these policy plans and new resources together will contribute to European climate policies? What kind of challenges and possibilities we can foresee in the implementation processes? What are the political disagreements concerning these policy actions?
The discussion starts with the presentations of our guest speakers, Krista Mikkonen, the Finnish Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, and Sirpa Pietikäinen, a member of the European Parliament. After that, online audience has possibility to comment and present questions.
Practical information
Online Zoom webinar. Registration until 2nd October is required. Link for the webinar will be announced after registration. Registration and more information: mariana.lyra@uef.fi
Main speakers:
Krista Mikkonen (Green Party), Finland’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change
Krista Johanna Mikkonen is a Finnish Green League politician, second-term member of parliament, and Finland’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. She has worked as a Member of the Finnish Parliament since 2015. In 2016-2019, Mikkonen was the chairperson of the Green League parliamentary group. Her constituency is Savonia-Karelia. She had previously been nominated in three parliamentary elections in 1999, 2007 and 2011 in the constituency of North Karelia.
Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP), Member of the European Parliament
Sirpa Pietikäinen, Finnish Member of the European Parliament representing the European People’s Party (EPP) since 2008. She was Finland’s Minister of Environment from 1991 to 1995 and a Member of the Finnish Parliament from 1983 to 2003. At the European Parliament, she is a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) and in the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM), as well as substitute in the Environment and Public Health Committee (ENVI). In 2015 she was the rapporteur of the resolution on circular economy.
Chairs:
Rauno Sairinen, Environmental Policy Professor
Rauno Sairinen works as a professor of environmental policy at the University of Eastern Finland and as a scientific leader of the Institute for Natural Resources, Environment and Society. His major research themes have concerned mining policies and its social responsibility, environmental and natural resources governance, social impact assessment, environmental policy instruments and community planning.
Hanna Lehtimäki, Innovation Management Professor
Hanna’s research examines sustainable innovation and renewal with theoretical frameworks on strategic management, leadership, stakeholder theory and networks. Her current research interests are focused on sustainable future-in-the-making, leadership and strategic management in sustainability transition and innovative emerging markets, such as circular economy. She is a vice PI in an Academy of Finland Strategic Research Council research consortium ‘Circular Economy Catalysts: From Innovation to Business Ecosystems’ (CICAT2025.fi).
Organizer:
LYY Institute for Natural Resources, Environment, and Society (https://sites.uef.fi/lyy)
We are a network organisation based at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) founded in 2011. Our network combines social and cultural scientific expertise for the analysis of environmental and climate challenges, the exploitation of various natural resources such as forests, minerals, and water, and possible societal paths towards sustainability. LYY’s objective is to strengthen multidisciplinary research and education on the environment and sustainable natural resource use from the perspectives of social and cultural sciences. In the UEF, it is one of the key actors for the UEF’s strategic area ‘Environmental change and sufficiency of natural resources’.
