Snowmen all across Finland have today come out encouraging MPs to support a just and ambitious climate policy. The snowmen stood outside the Houses of Parliament in Helsinki and in nine cities around Finland. They were pictured holding signs with two demands: a strong climate law and 40% reductions in Finland’s domestic carbon emissions by 2020.
The action was organised by Friends of the Earth Finland to say this is the least Finland and other industrialized countries should do to prevent the dangerous impacts of global warming. They are calling on their politicians to make bold, ambitious and far-reaching decisions in Finland’s climate policy this year.
“In their platform, the Finnish government has pledged to put forward a climate bill and to update the national climate and energy strategy. All of us, especially the MPs, have to be alert to make sure that Finland gets a strong climate law and ambitious emission reductions,” said Laura Meller, climate campaigner with Friends of the Earth Finland.
This is the seventh time the snowmen demonstrations have been organized in Finland as part of the Finnish Big Ask campaign. This year the snowmen gathered in front of the House of Parliament in Helsinki to remind members how important the decisions made in 2012 will be for tackling dangerous global warming in the near future.
The Big Ask is a Europe-wide campaign calling on governments to commit to reduce carbon emissions, equal to a reduction of EU-wide domestic emissions of at least 40 per cent, without offsetting, by 2020.
The Big Ask co-ordinated by national Friends of the Earth groups is engaging hundreds of thousands of people across Europe and empowering them to influence decisions taken by both national government and the European Union.
