FMI's Climate Bulletin Research Letters ACCC Special Issue 1/2023

FMI’S CLIMATE BULLETIN

Editorial — 4

Carbon balance of an afforested wasteland: A case study to quantify emission offset units — 6

Release, retention, and availability – towards mechanistic understanding of nitrogen retention by biochar — 9

Large-scale weather patterns associated with intense thunderstorm days in Finland — 12

Preliminary results of outdoor and indoor air quality and micrometeorological measurements in an inflatable football arena — 15

Does the new Finnish Climate Change Act promote urban climate resilience? — 18

The way forward for gender-responsive climate adaptation in international climate law — 20

FMI’S CLIMATE BULLETIN RESEARCH LETTERS

Volume 5

Issue 1

ISSN: 2341-6408

DOI: 10.35614/ISSN-23416408-IK-2022-12-RL

PUBLISHER

Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)

P.O. BOX 503

FI-00101 HELSINKI

www.ilmastokatsaus.fi

researchletters@fmi.fi

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Hilppa Gregow

SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS

Anna Luomaranta

Eeva Kuntsi-Reunanen

Yulia Yamineva

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

Hada Ajosenpää

Kaisa Juhanko

Juha A. Karhu

DESIGN

Marko Myllyaho

Please mention the source when citing the content. A DOI is available for each research letter article.

© FMI

Adaptation to climate change impacts needs to be strengthened

The intensifying climate change and its impacts call for rapid efforts to adapt, as once again reiterated by the latest assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2022. This Special issue of FMI’s Climate Bulletin Research Letters brings together a diverse set of articles addressing climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

The articles here demonstrate research activities conducted as part of the Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center (ACCC), which is a flagship funded by Academy of Finland, at the moment for the years 2020-2024. ACCC is based on a partnership of INAR at the University of Helsinki, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Tampere University, and University of Eastern Finland. As a leading “ecosystem” of interdisciplinary research and innovation, ACCC provides beyond state-of-the-art scientific knowledge on two of the most urgent global grand challenges, climate change and deteriorating air quality. It aims to co-create science-based solutions and provide analyses and recommendations for policy to guide the world toward climate neutrality and beyond. Active interaction with policymakers, private sector and civil society is a cornerstone of ACCC’s work.

ACCC comprises a community of around 800 researchers and technical experts, working in a number of disciplines: physics, chemistry, meteorology, forest sciences, biology, microbiology, ecology, geography, computing sciences, economics, statistics, engineering, law, and political sciences. The research work under ACCC takes place under three interconnected Research Programs. This Special issue presents the work relating to ACCC Research Program 3 focusing on climate change impacts and adaptation.

TUULA HONKONEN Researcher

YAMINEVA Special issue editor

HILPPA GREGOW Editor in chief

YULIA

This broad theme is examined from several different but related angles:

• Quantification of the impacts of Arctic change on high-latitude societies and ecosystems, and improving predictions of e.g., extreme weather events, vegetation changes and insect and wildfire outbreaks.

• Quantification of key ecological, social and economic impacts (including air quality) of land-use changes.

• Development of a new generation of impact modelling tools to support rapid adaptation.

• Assessment of adaptation pathways in relation to dynamic climate risks and implemented adaptation.

• Mapping the adequacy of existing legal frameworks for meeting Paris targets and developing recommendations for new climate policies.

The articles of this Special Issue presenting some highlights from RP3 natural sciences reflect challenges in carbon balance in an afforested wasteland (by Suvi Orttenvuori et al.) as well as nitrogen retention by biochar (by Kenneth Peltokangas et al.). New indicators and preliminary results are presented to be considered in the development of improved early warning systems. E.g., indicators that act as precursors of extreme convective weather are presented for Nordic countries (by Meri Virman et al.). Combined knowledge on aerosols and carbon dioxide concentrations were found useful when informing citizens of the breathable COVID-19 risks (by Hilppa Gregow et al.). Further, the Special Issue reflects on legal and governance issues. At the national level, more and more countries adopt adaptation laws and policies. At the international level, the Paris Agreement places a strong focus on adaptation and, in addition to that, various international and transnational institutions increasingly issue related guidance and standards. Global normative landscape on climate adaptation is clearly transforming; however, these changes have not yet been captured and explained by academics, and conceptual and empirical work to understand these phenomena is still to be done. The Special issue includes two short articles contributing to this debate. They discuss in particular: urban climate resilience in the context of the Finnish Climate Change Act (by Tuula Honkonen) and gender-responsive climate adaptation in international climate law (by Raihanatul Jannat).

ACCC provides beyond state-ofthe-art scientific knowledge on two of the most urgent global grand challenges, climate change and deteriorating air quality.

DOI: 10.35614/ISSN-2341-6408-IK-2023-04-RL

Received Dec 8, 2022, accepted Mar 15, 2023, first online Apr 13, 2023, published May 15, 2023

Carbon balance of an afforested wasteland: A case study to quantify emission offset units

Increasing carbon sequestration in land ecosystems is a common way to offset greenhouse gas emissions. We studied the carbon balance of an afforested wasteland site to demonstrate a method to quantify the offset units. The site manager spread an organic waste layer and planted spruce and birch seedlings with sown grass at the site. We monitored the carbon dioxide (CO2) balance and vegetation development for two years. We also projected the CO2 balance during the next 30 years using a process-based model and discussed implications for emission offsetting.

Introduction. The lack of feasible means to monitor and forecast improved carbon sequestration in land ecosystems limits the applicability of these ecosystems in greenhouse gas offset projects. We developed an approach that combines measurements and modelling to produce these estimates. Here, we demonstrate this method by applying it to a use case and estimate the 30-year carbon balance of an afforested wasteland.

Materials and methods. The study site in Southern Finland (60.8°, 25.2°) is located on a one hectare plot, which had previously been a clay quarry. The soil was condensed clay with poor growth conditions hampering the forest to generate naturally. In early 2020, there was a sparse occurrence of grasses and herbs with some small but dead tree saplings standing after an earlier unsuccessful afforestation attempt. In spring 2020, the clay soil was levelled, and approximately 30 cm layer of mixed organic waste material (app. 17.4 kg C m−2, see the supplement) was spread on top. The organic waste was easily decomposing organic matter and was mainly composed of bark, woody materials and composted sludge. In

June 2020, 850 spruce (Picea abies) and birch (Betula sp.) seedlings were planted and Festuca pratensis was sown on the site, but a notable share of the trees died soon after planting due to a heatwave with low precipitation. In early 2021, the densities of spruces and birches were 167 and 267 ha-1 with the mean heights of 22 and 41 cm, respectively. In 2022, the site was dominated by Festuca pratensis and naturally generated herbs, such

as Chamaenerion angustifolium, Artemisia vulgaris, Cirsium arvense, and Tripleurospermum inodorum. After planting additional spruce seedlings, the densities of spruces and birches were 800 and 267 ha-1 with mean heights of 45 and 142 cm, respectively.

Continuous micrometeorological data were collected with eddy covariance method (Aubinet et al. 2012) from June 23 2020 to June 29 2022. Automatic measurements of air tem-

SUVI ORTTENVUORI, TUOMAS LAURILA, LEIF BACKMAN, ESKO KARVINEN, ELINA NIEMINEN, HENRIIKKA VEKURI, OLLI NEVALAINEN , JUUSO RAINNE, JARI LISKI, LIISA KULMALA Finnish Meteorological Institute

FIG 1: Observed 30 min (red) and modeled hourly (blue) net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) from June 2020 to June 2022. Negative and positive values indicate that the site has acted as a sink or a source of atmospheric carbon, respectively.

perature and humidity, soil temperature and moisture, global and reflected solar radiation, photosynthetically active radiation, leaf area index and precipitation were also collected, and the site was mapped with aerial drone imagery. In addition, manual chamber measurements of CO2 fluxes were performed during the main growing season. The measurement instrumentation and data processing are described in detail in the supplement

The soil properties and vegetation in the land surface model JSBACH (Kaminski et al. 2013) were set up to match the conditions at the site. In JSBACH the soil carbon dynamics are simulated with soil carbon model Yasso (Tuomi et al. 2009). The model was driven with hourly ERA5-Land reanalysis data of 2m air temperature, precipitation, 2m dewpoint temperature, surface solar and thermal radiation and 10m wind speed data (Muñoz Sabater et al. 2019) from June 2020 until June 2022. Model parameters related to soil moisture dynamics and plant growth were adjusted in order to replicate the measurements adequately. Then, the model was run for a 30-year period (20212050) forced with EURO-CORDEX data (Jacob et al. 2014) for different vegetation setups: 1) the factual vegetation assuming trees gradually take up land area from the ground vegetation, 2) only grass, 3) only birch, 4) only spruce and 5) no vegetation representing emissions arising mainly from the waste. All the model runs followed the RCP4.5 emission scenario. The model setup is described in detail in the supplement Results. Both the observed and the modeled CO2 exchange indicate that the site was a source of atmospheric carbon (Fig. 1). During the first two years, the observed annual net exchange of CO2 revealed net emissions of 2141 and 2136 g C m-2 from the

site to the atmosphere. JSBACH was able to simulate the momentary CO2 exchange dynamics fairly well, but it underestimated the large CO2 emission originating from the decomposing substrate in June–July 2020 (Fig. 1). On average, the modeled CO2 exchange was 84 % of the observed one during the two measurement years. Furthermore, the manual chamber measurements agreed with the automatic observations of the fast decomposition of the soil substrate (see the supplement). The minor mismatch between the model and observations covered only a short period of the whole simulation time and affected all scenarios similarly. Therefore, it was not considered in the future carbon balance estimations.

All future simulations projected large positive net ecosystem exchange (NEE) during the first years (Fig. 2) due to large emissions from the decomposing organic material. The simulations for the site with the factual vegetation (setup 1) or for grass only (setup 2) projected smaller initial emissions than the simulations for trees alone (setup 3

and 4), due to higher photosynthetic production of grass compared to the small tree seedlings. In the second half of the simulated period, the dense spruce stand had the greatest sink of atmospheric carbon on an annual scale. The simulations with high grass proportion were sensitive to annual variations in the meteorological forcing and therefore a distinct annual source or sink of carbon was not established even during the end of the simulated period (Fig. 2). For the period from the beginning of 2021 until the end of 2050, the simulations predict a carbon emission of 4.2 kg C m-2 for the site setup, 2.9 kg C m-2 for only birch, 6.2 kg C m-2 for only grass, and 4.0 kg C m-2 for only spruce. The emissions from the growing media alone were estimated to be 13.3 kg C m-2, hence the afforestation in the manner it was actually performed, called the site setup, decreased 9.1 kg C m-2 of the emissions arising from the waste.

Conclusions. Afforestation is considered as a possibility to mitigate climate change in the land use sector. In this case study, the

FIG 2: Estimated annual carbon balance for the actual site and the alternative simulations for grass, birch, spruce, and non-vegetated sites from 2021 to 2050.

regeneration of vegetation was supported by bringing easily decomposable organic waste onto the site. However, high emissions from this substrate dominated the CO2 exchange between the site and the atmosphere during the first years. On the other hand, the emissions from the substate, i.e., waste material, would have occurred anyway,

therefore the operation supporting the survival of vegetation did offset 9.1 kg C m-2 of the emissions arising from the waste during the following 30 years.

Acknowledgements. We thank the Academy of Finland via Flagship program for Atmospheric and Climate Competence Center (ACCC, Grant no 337552) and the Strategic

Research Council working under the Academy of Finland (#335204). We thank Olivia Kuuri-Riutta and Pinja Rauhamäki for the help in the field work and Juha-Pekka Tuovinen for the help in footprint calculations. Juha Hatakka, Mika Aurela and Timo Mäkelä are acknowledged for their practical help.

Aubinet, M., and Coauthors, 2012: Eddy covariance: a practical guide to measurement and data analysis. Springer, 438 pp., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2351-1

Heimsch, L., and Coauthors, 2021: Carbon dioxide fluxes and carbon balance of an agricultural grassland in southern Finland. Biogeosciences, 18(11), 3467–3483, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3467-2021

Jacob, D., and Coauthors, 2014: EURO-CORDEX: new high-resolution climate change projections for European impact research. Regional environmental change, 14(2), 563–578, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0499-2

Kaminski, T., and Coauthors, 2013: The BETHY/JSBACH carbon cycle data assimilation system: Experiences and challenges. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 118(4), 1414–1426, https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrg.20118

Muñoz Sabater, J., and Coauthors, 2019: ERA5-Land hourly data from 1981 to present. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). (Accessed on < 05-AUG-2022 >), https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.e2161bac

Tuomi, M., and Coauthors, 2009: Leaf litter decomposition – Estimates of global variability based on Yasso07 model. Ecological Modelling, 220(23), 3362–3371, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.05.016

Received Oct 29, 2022, accepted Jan 23, 2023, first online Feb 2, 2023, published May 15, 2023

Release, retention, and availability – towards mechanistic understanding of nitrogen retention by biochar

Biochar application has been shown to benefit soil fertility and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thus promoting sustainable and climate-smart agriculture. An important aspect of that sustainability is related to nitrogen availability, which contributes to crop yields but may also cause negative environmental consequences, such as soil nitrous oxide emissions, or leaching of nitrate, and subsequent eutrophication of water systems in the catchment area. In this study, we present results outlining the retention and release of nitrogen by biochar and its effects on nitrogen availability to plants.

KENNETH PELTOKANGAS1,2,3, NELLI PITKÄNEN2, SANNA KANERVA2, MARI PIHLATIE2,3,4

1Finnish Meteorological Institute

2Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland

3Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki, Finland

4Viikki Plant Science Centre (ViPS), Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland

Biochar (BC) is currently the most promising agricultural practice for carbon (C) sequestration (Bai et al. 2019). In addition to being composed mainly of recalcitrant C, which can persist in soils for decades (Heikkinen et al. 2021), its application has been shown to benefit soil fertility (Dai et al. 2020) by increasing water and nutrient retention and limiting soil nitrogen (N) losses by reducing nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate (NO3¯) leaching (Borchard et al. 2019). However, many studies have provided simple

phenomenological assessment of the effects of BC application, leading to limited mechanistic understanding of BC related N retention despite its great environmental significance.

Our aim was to test whether two commercial BCs would exhibit NO3¯ retention and whether their use would influence N availability to plants. We hypothesized that the retention of NO3¯ is determined by the physical properties of BC, mainly hydrophobicity and internal porosity. To test our

hypotheses, we conducted two parallel experiments in summer 2021. Retention potential and release of mineral-N (NH4+ + NO3¯) were studied using consecutive extractions for NO3 -saturated BCs, and a subsequent growth experiment was conducted to examine whether NO3¯-saturated BC would cause N deficiency in barley when used as the sole N-source.

Biochars. The study included two commercial BCs: A walnut shell BC (NshBC) and a spruce chip BC (SprBC)

mean (± standard deviation) dry weight (DW), bulk density (BD) specific surface area before (SSA 1) and after grinding (SSA 2), particle size distribution, water holding capacity (WHC), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), C and N content as well as nitrate (NO3 -N) and ammonium (NH4+-N) contents.

Table

1: Physico-chemical characteristics of walnut shell BC (NshBC) and spruce chip BC (SprBC):

produced using flash pyrolysis (800–900 °C) and continuous slow pyrolysis (600 °C), respectively. Both BCs had similar specific surface area (SSA), bulk density (BD), as well as C and N contents, while major differences were in dry weight (DW), particle size distribution, water holding capacity (WHC), pH, and electrical conductivity (Table 1).

Nitrogen retention. The experiment was conducted using NO3¯-saturated BC. At first, 5 g (dw) of both BCs (n=4) were incubated (+4 °C, 93 days) with 10 ml KNO3-solution containing 20 μg N g–1 BC. The incubation was done to ensure that the hydrophobic BC absorbed the KNO3-solution. The BCs were then subjected to three consecutive extractions using 50 ml 2 M KCl-solution, and the extracts were analysed for NH4+-N and NO3¯-N using GalleryTM Plus Beermaster Discrete Analyzer (Thermo Scientific, USA).

Both BCs initially contained mineral-N equal to approximately 10% of the added NO3¯-N. It is therefore interesting that the recovery rate of NO3¯-N from NshBC was less than 2%, while the recovery rate from SprBC was approximately 80% (Fig. 1). In both cases, additional extractions would have likely increased the recovery of NO3¯ as NshBC only started to release mineral-N and the release from SprBC had not yet plateaued. Furthermore, while the amount of NH4+-N in the first extracts was below detection limit (Fig. 1), subsequent extractions released NH4+ from both BCs. In case of NshBC, the amount of NH4+-N released was substantial compared to the total amount of released NO3¯-N.

Plant growth. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse using the two BCs, which were pre-incubated (+4 °C, 14 days) with 5 ml KNO3-solution containing either 20 or 35 μg N g–1 BC. The BCs were mixed with quartz sand in two rates (2 % and 10 % of the volume, n=4) and the mixture was administered to plastic pots (640 cm3). The fertilization treatments corresponded to 80 and 140 kg N ha–1 (80N and 140N) while the BC application rates were

0 (no BC, only N added as KNO3), 20 (2 % BC), and 100 (10% BC) Mg ha–1, respectively.

Randomly arranged pots were sown with five pre-germinated barley seeds 3 cm apart and 1 cm deep. Watering was conducted using the watering plates. The plants were fertilized three times with Vita Solatrel (Yara, Finland) during the 36 days experiment. Plant height was measured from the base of the shoots (Fig. 2) and chlorophyll content determined using SPAD-502Plus (Konica Minolta, Japan) three times a week from three individual plants per pot. At the end of the experiment, all shoots were cut, and roots washed. Both roots and shoots were then dried at 40 °C and analysed for their C and N content using 828CN analyser, (LECO, Germany).

The fertilization rate did not have a significant effect (p > 0.05) on plant height, but combined BC application rate with BC type did (p < 0.05). Plant height was highest with 10% SprBC + 80N, whereas 10% NshBC + 140N resulted in the lowest height (Fig. 2). NshBC had the lowest root and shoot biomass, whereas the largest root biomass was observed with the control treatment with 140N fertilization rate. However, the largest shoot biomass was observed with 10% SprBC 140N (Fig. 2). SprBC treatments had also significantly more chlorophyll than the other treatments until day 25, but

at the end of the experiment most BC treatments showed higher N and chlorophyll contents than the control (data not shown).

Future directions. NshBC exhibited significant NO3¯ retention potential compared to SprBC (Fig. 1). The differences in retention are likely due to the differences in hydrophobicity and wetting properties. In general, hydrophobicity increases with increasing production temperature, and this is reflected by the higher DW and lower WHC of NshBC compared to SprBC (Table 1). Regardless, the experiment demonstrated that future studies involving BC should use repeated extractions to determine mineral-N as the standard method used for extracting soil mineral-N clearly underestimates N retention by BC (Kammann et al. 2015, Haider et al. 2016, Hagemann et al. 2017).

None of the treatments exhibited signs of chlorosis, which would have indicated N deficiency. Furthermore, fertilization rate did not affect growth indicating that N availability was not a growth-limiting factor during the experiment. This is in line with previous studies, as BC has rarely been shown to increase yields, but in this case, N retention did not inhibit growth either. All treatments exhibited yellowing of the shoot tips indicating water stress, likely due to inadequate watering during the hot summer in 2021. The BC treatments

FIG 1: Ammonium (NH4+-N) and nitrate (NO3–-N) nitrogen extracted from walnut shell biochar (NshBC) and spruce chip biochar (SprBC) by three consecutive 2 M KCl extractions. Error bars represent standard deviation (n=4).

FIG 2: Plant height during the growth experiment compared to control treatments (left) as well as root and shoot biomass (right) after the experiment. Treatments included two fertilization rates (80N and 140N) with two application rates (2 % and 10 %) of walnut shell BC (NshBC) and spruce chip BC (SprBC) as well as the controls (no BC, only 80N or 140N added). Error bars represent standard deviation (n=3).

did not seem to alleviate water stress despite their high WHC (Table 1). This was likely due to quartz sand, which was chosen as an inert growth medium that contains no N. However, we found that because of its high packing density, it retains water efficiently, but has limited aeration. Mixing it with fine textured BC may have made the situation worse by causing even tighter packing, which could explain the stunted growth by NshBC (Fig. 2). Therefore, future studies should carefully consider the physical properties of the growth medium.

Furthermore, despite their distinct particle distributions, both BCs had equal SSA (Table 1), which was also unaffected by grinding. This indicates that SSA was not determined by the external surfaces of the BC particles but their internal pores instead. Therefore, administering BC as large particles may be preferable (Schmidt et al. 2021), as fine textured BC can increase soil BD (Devereux et al. 2012), or when applied to coarse textured soil, they may be susceptible to leaching (Tammeorg et al. 2014), which can limit its value as a soil amendment.

Acknowledgements. The study was conducted in collaboration with Carbo Culture Oy and Carbofex Oy. We thank them for providing us with the studied materials. The project was funded from the joint Carbo Soil -project by University of Helsinki and Carbo Culture Oy (project number 4708998). We also acknowledge Academy of Finland via Flagship program for Atmospheric and Climate Competence Center (ACCC, Grant no 337552).

Bai, X., and Coauthors, 2019: Responses of soil carbon sequestration to climate-smart agriculture practices: A meta-analysis. Global change biology, 25(8), 2591–2606, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14658

Borchard, N., and Coauthors, 2019: Biochar, soil and land-use interactions that reduce nitrate leaching and N2O emissions: a meta-analysis. Science of the Total Environment, 651, 2354–2364, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.060

Dai, Y., H. Zheng, Z. Jiang, and B. Xing, 2020: Combined effects of biochar properties and soil conditions on plant growth: a meta-analysis. Science of the total environment, 713, 136635, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136635

Devereux, R. C., C. J. Sturrock, and S. J. Mooney, 2012: The effects of biochar on soil physical properties and winter wheat growth. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 103(1), 13–18, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755691012000011

Hagemann, N., C. I. Kammann, H. P. Schmidt, A. Kappler, and S. Behrens, 2017: Nitrate capture and slow release in biochar amended compost and soil. PloS one, 12(2), 0171214, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0171214

Haider, G., D. Steffens, C. Müller, and C. I. Kammann, 2016: Standard extraction methods may underestimate nitrate stocks captured by field-aged biochar. Journal of Environmental Quality, 45(4), 1196–1204, https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2015.10.0529

Heikkinen, J., and Coauthors, 2021: Chemical composition controls the decomposition of organic amendments and influences the microbial community structure in agricultural soils. Carbon Management, 12(4), 359–376, https://doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2021.1947386

Kammann, C. I., and Coauthors, 2015: Plant growth improvement mediated by nitrate capture in co-composted biochar. Scientific reports, 5(1), 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep11080

Schmidt, H. P., C. Kammann, N. Hagemann, J. Leifeld, T. D. Bucheli, M. A. Sánchez Monedero, and M. L. Cayuela, 2021: Biochar in agriculture–A systematic review of 26 global meta-analyses. GCB Bioenergy, 13(11), 1708–1730, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12889 Tammeorg, P., A. Simojoki, P. Mäkelä, F. L. Stoddard, L. Alakukku, and J. Helenius, 2014: Short-term effects of biochar on soil properties and wheat yield formation with meat bone meal and inorganic fertiliser on a boreal loamy sand. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 191, 108–116, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2014.01.007

Received

Large-scale weather patterns associated with intense thunderstorm days in Finland

We investigate the evolution of the large-scale weather patterns prior to the 40 most intense thunderstorm days in Finland in 2002–2021 by using lightning observations and the ERA5 reanalysis data. Our results show that intense thunderstorm days are typically associated with a surface high pressure to east and low pressure to west of Finland. An upper-level ridge is co-located with a warm and moist airmass over Fennoscandia. The large-scale weather pattern is largely similar for the three preceding days, however, large case-to-case variability occurs three days before the intense thunderstorm day.

In Finland, thunderstorms can be associated with numerous hazards, such as fallen trees, flooding and forest fires. To reduce the societal and economic impacts posed by thunderstorms, accurate weather forecasts are needed. Identification of the typical large-scale weather evolution associated with thunderstorms can aid forecasting the risk and preparing for the possible impacts some days in advance. This study aims to complement the existing knowledge of the large-scale weather conditions conducive to thunderstorm occurrence in Finland.

The mean large-scale environment on days with mesoscale convective systems (MCS) and smaller thunderstorms in Finland has been investigated previously by Punkka and Bister (2015) using radar and the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. However, that study covered only eight warm seasons and did not show how the environment varied between cases or evolved over time. In our study, we investigate the composite large-scale weather patterns, and their variability, on and before the most intense thunderstorm days in Finland and focus on a 20-year time period in 2002–2021.

We use lightning observations to find the most intense thunderstorm

days between May and September. An intense thunderstorm day is defined to be a day when at least 10 000 cloud-to-ground lightning flashes are detected in Finland. In 2002–2021, we have had 40 of such cases. For these

cases we assess the mean, median and standard deviation composites of selected meteorological variables calculated from the ERA5 data (Hersbach et al. 2020) at 12 UTC on intense thunderstorm days (day 0) as

MERI VIRMAN, TERHI K. LAURILA, HILPPA GREGOW Finnish Meteorological Institute

FIG 1: Mean composite of 300-hPa geopotential height (Z300, a-b) and mean sea level pressure (MSLP, c-d) on intense thunderstorm days (day 0, a and c) and two days prior to intense thunderstorm days (day -2, b and d).

well as on the three preceding days (day -1, -2, and -3).

Our results show that an intense thunderstorm day occurs, on average, twice a year. Considerable variability occurs in the annual and monthly number of cases (not shown), which is also seen in the long-term time series of thunderstorm occurrence in Finland (Laurila and Mäkelä, 2019). The highest annual number of intense thunderstorm days occurred in 2003 (9 days), whereas there were 5 years when no intense thunderstorm days were detected. Roughly half of the cases occurred in July (21 days), whereas the number of intense thunderstorm days in May, June and August were 2, 9 and 8, respectively. None of the intense thunderstorm days occurred in September.

The composite mean 300-hPa geopotential height shows that on day 0, there is an upper-level ridge over eastern Fennoscandia and an upper-level trough over north-western Europe (Fig. 1a). At the surface, a high-pressure area is located over parts of western Russia, whereas an area of relatively low pressure occurs over Fennoscandia and another one close to Iceland (Fig. 1c). This kind of pattern would trigger a southerly flow over Finland and, thus, an inflow of warm and moist air from the south towards Finland. At the 850-hPa level, warm air from southern Europe extends to Fennoscandia, whereas over western Europe the airmass is colder (Fig. 2a). Relative humidity at 700-hPa is high over Fennoscandia and central Europe (Fig. 2c). The composite large-scale weather pattern somewhat resembles that associated with observed MCSs in Finland in a previous study (Punkka and Bister, 2015). More specifically, Punkka and Bister (2015) showed that MCSs are associated with an upper-level trough over western Europe and a surface low pressure area over Fennoscandia. Lastly, the composite mean fields (Figs. 1 and 2) in this study closely resemble the corresponding median fields (not shown).

FIG 2: Mean composite of 850-hPa temperature (T850, a-b) and 700-hPa relative humidity (RH700, c-d) on intense thunderstorm days (day 0, a and c) and two days prior to intense thunderstorm days (day -2, b and d).

FIG 3: Standard deviation composite of 300-hPa geopotential height (Z300, a-b) and mean sea level pressure (MSLP, c-d) on intense thunderstorm days (day 0, a and c) and two days prior to intense thunderstorm days (day -2, b and d).

On day 0, standard deviations of the 300-hPa geopotential height and the 850-hPa temperature are relatively small over Fennoscandia but larger over parts of western Russia and western Europe (Fig. 3a and Fig. 4a). This may suggest that intense thunderstorm days in Finland are typically associated with a ridge of warm airmass over Fennoscandia, but that there is large case-to-case variability in the zonal extent of the warm airmass, particularly to the east of Finland. The standard deviation of the mean sea level pressure on day 0 is relatively small in southern Europe and Russia, but relatively large over northern and western Europe and Iceland (Fig. 3c). This is expected, as mid-latitude cyclone activity in Europe is highest in these regions (Priestley et al. 2020). Standard deviation of the 700-hPa relative humidity shows large spatial variability (Fig. 4c), however, a distinct minimum is seen in the southern half of Finland.

The composite mean large-scale weather patterns on day -1, -2 and -3 (shown only on day -2 in Fig. 1b, d and Fig. 2b, d) generally resemble those on day 0 (Fig. 1a, c and Fig. 2a, c). Over Finland, mean sea level pressure decreases, and the 300-hPa geopotential height, 850-hPa temperature and 700hPa moisture increase from day -3 towards day 0. On day -1, standard deviations of 300-hPa geopotential, 850-hPa temperature and mean sea level pressure over Fennoscandia are generally small (not shown). On day -2, the standard deviations are slightly larger than on day 0 over most parts of Fennoscandia (Fig. 3b, d and Fig. 4b, d). However, on day -3, standard deviations of mean sea level pressure and 300-hPa geopotential height are, in general, larger than on day 0, -1 and -2 over most parts of Fennoscandia, western Russia and eastern North Atlantic (not shown).

To summarize, our results suggest that intense thunderstorm days in Finland are associated with an upper-level ridge over Fennoscandia, a surface high pressure over western Russia and the spread of warm and moist airmass from the south. The mean large-scale weather pattern is rather similar for at least the three preceding days. However, large case-to-case variability, especially in the northward extent of the upper-level ridge and the strength of the low-pressure areas over Fennoscandia and eastern North Atlantic, is seen on day -3. This suggests that the large-scale weather pattern is robust between day 0 and -2. However, it is possible that the large-scale weather evolution is different for thunderstorms in different regions in Finland, which

could be a topic for a future study. This study could also be continued by assessing whether the most intense thunderstorm days have been associated with anomalous large-scale weather patterns and whether the environment differs from weaker events.

Acknowledgements. We thank CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland, for computational resources and ECMWF for providing the ERA5 reanalysis, which is available from the Copernicus Climate Change Service’s Climate Data Store. This work was supported by the MONITUHO project (grant no. 647/03.02.06.00/2018) and Academy of Finland Flagship funding (grant no. 337552).

Hersbach, H., and Co-authors, 2020: The ERA5 global reanalysis. Q J R Meteorol Soc., 146, 1999–2049, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3803.

Laurila T. K., and A. Mäkelä, 2019: Thunderstorm observations in Finland – historical observations since 1887. FMI’s Clim. Bull. Res. Lett., 1(2), 4, https://doi.org/10.35614/ISSN-2341-6408-IK-2019-13-RL.

Priestley, and Co-authors, 2020: An overview of the extratropical storm tracks in CMIP6 historical simulations. Journal of Climate, 33(15), 6315–6343, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0928.1.

Punkka, A., and M. Bister, 2015: Mesoscale Convective Systems and Their Synoptic-Scale Environment in Finland. Weather Forecast., 30, 1, 182–196, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-13-00146.1

FIG 4: Standard deviation composite of 850-hPa temperature (T850, a-b) and 700-hPa relative humidity (RH700, c-d) on intense thunderstorm days (day 0, a and c) and two days prior to intense thunderstorm days (day -2, b and d).

Received 2 May 2022, accepted 11 July 2022, first online 12 July 2022, published May 15, 2023

Preliminary results of outdoor and indoor air quality and micrometeorological measurements in an inflatable football arena

Introduction. Climate change is expected to increasingly impact the indoor and outdoor conditions in the future (IPCC 2021). In regard to football, it is urgent to promote climate neutrality and meet e.g., the UEFA2030 climate targets in mitigation and adaptation (UEFA 2022). In addition, it is evident that health risks in the breathable air, including risks both related to poor air quality and spreading of diseases such as COVID-19, should be mitigated proactively as well as possible.

Due to COVID-19 there was a fully unexpected lockdown of societies in 2020–2021 (Torkmahalleh et al. 2021). The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) was asked by the football clubs to help investigate how COVID-19 is spreading in the air and what restrictions are essential in outdoor conditions as well as indoor inflatable arenas.

The air quality in football arenas has been a concern, e.g., due to volatile compounds emitted by the artificial turf fields (Salonen et al. 2015) and more lately due to COVID-19 superspreading events. During COVID-19 pandemic it was noticed that aerosols containing SARS-CoV-2 are co-exhaled with CO2 by people with COVID19 infection. It was then found that

CO2 can also be used as a proxy of SARS-CoV-2 concentrations indoors (Peng and Jimenez 2021).

Very limited amount of information exists about the air quality in the modern inflatable football arenas. In the study by Salonen et al. (2015), health impacts related to compounds emitted by the artificial turf, particulate matter (PM) and microbial emissions have been concerns related to older indoor arenas, and more than half of adolescent football players using the studied arenas reported

at least one symptom or nuisance (e.g., sore throat, running nose). Most studies indicate PM2.5 at or below 12 μg/m3 is considered to carry little to no risk from exposure (IAHI 2022). According to IAHI (2022), peaks above 35 μg/m3/24 hours can cause issues for people with existing breathing issues, such as asthma. Long-range transports (LRT) are an important source of pollution in ambient air, but their impact has not been studied in regard to football arenas.

Continuous measurements of air quality are needed in outdoor and indoor sports and recreation areas to raise awareness of the breathable air conditions and to help mitigate the accumulating health risks.

HILPPA

GREGOW, ANTTI MÄKELÄ, PENTTI PIRINEN, ACHIM DREBS, JUUSO RAINNE, ANNALEA LOHILA, HILKKA TIMONEN Finnish Meteorological Institute

FIG 1: Football arena measurement locations (numbered circles). SmartCitizen low-cost sensors measured in all locations, Licor instrument only in the location 2. The ventilation system is located on right.

In this article we describe, what efforts we have made in 2021–2022, and what we have learned about air quality outside and inside an inflatable football arena located in Järvenpää, southern Finland.

Experimental setup. In many ways the large inflatable arenas that are commonly used in the football are more resembling outdoor conditions than indoor due to their size, volume and effective ventilation. Our measurements were conducted in a modern inflatable football arena (volume of 144 000 m3) located in Järvenpää (Fig. 1).

To study the air transmission and conditions in the football arena, we made preliminary air flow, temperature and relative humidity measurements using a hot-wire anemometer (VelociCalc 8347) in the football arena on April 16th 2021. We received the number of participants in trainings and games from JäPs (1.11.–27.11.2021). Furthermore, between June 2021 and February 2022, three SmartCitizen low-cost sensors, developed in H2020 iScape-project (see https:// smartcitizen.me/ and www.iscapeproject.eu) were used to monitor PM1, PM2.5, PM10, (refers to particles with diameter smaller than 1, 2.5 and 10 µm), eCO₂ (i.e., a metric measure used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases on the basis of their global-warming potential), TVOC (total VOC) concentrations, as well as light, noise and meteorological parameters (Temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), pressure (P)) with time resolution of 1 min. The sensors were installed to western side of the arena, in the middle and to both ends of the arena (Fig. 1) at approximately 1.5–3 m height, depending on where it was safe and where electricity to install the sensor was available. Prior to measurements, a co-location study was carried out to ensure the results of sensors are comparable (results not shown). One CO₂/H₂0 analyzer (Licor LI-840A) was installed in the arena for two weeks in spring

2022 to compare the results of the low-cost sensors. Luukki (Northern Espoo, 45 km from the Järvenpää) clean background air quality station was used in the LRT investigations.

Results. In April 2021, the hot-wire

anemometer measurements indicated that the largest air flows (> 7–10 m/s) were observed in the proximity of air vents and lowest (< 0.1 m/s) in the middle and in the corners on the side of the running track. During the train-

FIG 3: Noise above 60dB and the number of participants (upper panel, lowcost sensor) (1.11.–13.11.2021) and number of participants vs CO2 concentrations (lower panel, Licor analyzer) (26.3.–10.4.2022) in the arena.

FIG 2: PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations measured in the Luukki background station and in Järvenpää football arena during LRT Episode 1 and Episode 2.

ing hours (12:00–22:00) in November–March the mean temperature varied between -0.6 °C and 4.1 °C and the mean humidity between 63.6 % and 77.4 %, with maximum and minimum that were much larger and smaller. In summertime, a clear diurnal cycle was observed, with minimum in the nighttime and maximum in the afternoons, similarly as in the ambient air. This was expected, as the air flow from outdoor to indoor is 70000 m3/h to inflate the arena.

Indoor, the measured PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations were mostly low. However, random peaks of PM2.5 above 12 µg/m3 and for PM10 of 50 µg/m3 (daily average safety limit) did occur (Fig. 2). To study the influence of outdoor air to the air quality in the football arena, we studied how the two long-range transport (LRT) episodes (marked with Episode 1 and Episode 2), visible in the HSY Luukki Air quality station as an increase in particulate matter concentrations, are seen in the football arena (Fig. 2). During both LRT episodes a clear increase was seen, with nearly as large PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations indoors as outdoors. During Episode 2 trainings took place (Fig. 3).

In the inflatable football arena in Järvenpää, the incoming air flow is 70000 m3/h. When the incoming air flow is compared to human breathing (rough estimate: 90 l/min in exercise, for 100 persons the breathing volume is 540000 l/h, i.e., 540 m3/h), the breathing volume is negligible (< 1 %). We found that eCO2 has some correlation with the number of participants and noise. However, the eCO2

was found to be influenced by other greenhouse gases such as water vapour. On the other hand, the number of participants and noise with values exceeding 60 dB had clear correlation (r=0,66) in the arena. Thus, noise was considered to serve as a new indicator for assessing the number of people present in the football activities (Fig. 3). We note that the variation in CO2 concentration was modest (between 420–650 ppm), likely due to strong ventilation.

Discussion and conclusions. Meteorological measurements conducted by the low-cost sensors show that the conditions in the arena vary a lot during the year, likely affecting the training conditions as well. Although the PM sensors are not the most reliable ones, they demonstrated that the PM concentrations were mainly low. However, random PM2.5 peaks above recommended safe 24-hourly levels (12 µg/m3) did occur during the longrange transport episode and a local fire.

As regards the COVID-19 infection risk monitoring, we learned that the measured noise correlated with the number of participants in the arena. The number of participants also correlated with CO2, which we measured with Licor during two weeks in Spring 2022. Based on Peng and Jimenez (2021), we assume that our future research should focus on proving if noise can also be used as a proxy of SARS-CoV-2 concentrations indoors. We should also do simulations, as based on the preliminary assessment, we found spots where the air was not moving. In addition, we should focus

on temperature and humidity conditions, since based on Ai et al. (2022) the risk of COVID-19 infection was found to be the highest at temperature below 5 °C and with low relative humidity. In Järvenpää, the mean training temperature was below 5 °C in November–March, thus increasing risk, whereas the relative humidity was mostly above 60 %, thus decreasing risk. All in all, to better know how to improve the level of safety in the inflatable football arenas in regard to COVID-19 infection as well as the overall breathable air risks, we conclude that there is an urgent need for more measurements and research.

Acknowledgements. Funding from the Academy of Finland, Flagship (grant no. 337552) is gratefully acknowledged. Collaboration with the football clubs and their representatives, MPS (Malmin Palloseura) Jukka Airaksinen and JäPS (Järvenpään Palloseura) Jari Kurittu and Marika Hagelin, are acknowledged for inviting science to meet practice. Tero Auvinen from Finnish Football Association and Mihaly Szerovay (University of Jyväskylä) are acknowledged for boosting collaboration.

Ai, H., R. Nie, and X. Wang, 2022: Evaluation of the effects of meteorological factors on COVID-19 prevalence by the distributed lag nonlinear model. J. Transl. Med., 20, 170, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-022-03371-1

IAHI, 2022: PM2.5 Explained. Accessed 12 July 2022, https://www.indoorairhygiene.org/pm2-5-explained/ IPCC, 2021: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. V. Masson-Delmotte et al., Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 2391 pp. doi:10.1017/9781009157896

Peng, Z. and J. L. Jimenez, 2021: Exhaled CO2 as a COVID-19 Infection Risk Proxy for Different Indoor Environments and Activities. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett., 8, 392–397, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00183

Salonen R. O., and Coauthors, 2015: Air quality problems related to artificial turf fields in indoor football arenas. National Institute for Health and Welfare Report 10/2015 (in Finnish, abstract in English), 45 pp, https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-302-425-0

Torkmahalleh, M. A., and Coauthors, 2021: Global Air Quality and COVID-19 Pandemic: Do We Breathe Cleaner Air?, Aerosol Air Qual. Res., 21, https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.200567

UEFA, 2022: Our strategy, policies & targets. Accessed 1 May 2022, https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/sustainability/strategy/

DOI: 10.35614/ISSN-2341-6408-IK-2023-01-RL

Received Aug 25, 2022, accepted Jan 16, 2023, first online Jan 27, 2023, published May 15, 2023

Does the new Finnish Climate Change Act promote urban climate resilience?

Although climate change is a global problem and states are the main actors in climate governance, the role of sub-national governments is increasing in this field. Finland’s national Climate Change Act, revised in 2022, sets the framework for climate policymaking for the state authorities. The new Act addresses municipalities to a limited extent, but it is questionable whether its obligations work towards enhancing urban climate resilience in Finland.

TUULA HONKONEN University of Eastern Finland Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law (CCEEL)

Municipalities’ climate governance. Climate change has traditionally been perceived as a global problem that nation states seek to address by mitigation and adaptation. In the early days of the climate movement, cities and municipalities were not widely recognized, and they mostly did not recognize themselves, as important regulatory actors in the battle against climate change.

The autonomy and governance powers of cities, and municipalities more generally, vary across countries. Consequently, the extent to which legal obligations are conferred on sub-state governments varies. In recent years, states have increasingly introduced national climate change acts as overarching legislative acts on climate change (ClientEarth 2021; Muinzer 2020). These are directed at the national governments, outlining their responsibilities and setting up the basis for countries’ climate change policies. Sometimes climate acts also specifically address the municipal level of climate governance. This is the case with the new Finnish Climate Change Act, which entered into force in July 2022.

Urban climate resilience and law.

Cities have a key role in societies’ resilience towards climate change, the impacts of which are felt at all spatial levels. Globally, and in a great number of countries, the majority of the hu-

man population lives in cities. Furthermore, even a larger share of the national wealth is concentrated in cities, making them represent the largest asset value at risk due to climate change. Urban climate resilience can be understood as climate resilience in the context of urban areas, recognizing their rapid growth (or the shrinking population, in some cases) and the prevailing and projected uncertainties associated with climate change (ADB 2014; Honkonen 2022). In general, climate change resilience entails both mitigation and adaptation. The concept implies the capacity of a system to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, while at the same time being able to reorganize to maintain its essence and capacity for adaptation, learning and transformation (IPCC 2014).

The role of law and regulation in strengthening urban climate resilience is central, but often at the same time rather subtle. Furthermore, decentralization of municipal governance plays a significant role in many countries. This also applies to Finland. In terms of regulation, promotion of climate resilience entails a focus on reducing vulnerabilities to climate change impacts. This naturally means adaptation, but also broader planning and organizational measures, in various areas of societal

development and in relation to various activities that take climate risks into account and reduce vulnerabilities. At the same time the promotion of climate resilience through regulation entails building capacity to manage change and risks emanating from climate change.

The role of municipalities in the new Climate Change Act. The Finnish Climate Change Act was first introduced in 2015, at which point it comprised a rather broad framework act addressed to the government and relevant state authorities but not to sub-national governance actors. A major revision process was initiated only five years after the Act’s adoption (on the reform in Finnish, see Albrecht et al. 2020; Kulovesi et al. 2020; Ulvi et al. 2022). The reasons behind the speedy reform were many and included the need to include the new national climate neutrality target and intermediate targets in the Act. The scope of the new Climate Change Act, approved in summer 2022, encompasses the climate policy plans by state authorities (§ 3). The obligation to promote the realization of the targets and plans set out in the Act applies to the actions of state authorities only (§ 5). In this sense, the legislative reform did not change the legal responsibility to regulate urban climate resilience in Finland.

The reform of the Finnish Climate Change Act is not yet complete. The Act will be complemented by a separate amendment due to come into force on 1 March 2023. This amendment includes an obligation to draw up climate plans at the local, district or county level. The issue is complex and involves a mix of interests, which explains why it was omitted from the original government proposal. The amendment to the Climate Change Act specifies that the scope of the Act will include municipalities when they prepare municipal climate change plans and monitor their realization (§ 3 as amended). However, it is noteworthy that § 5, which obliges state authorities to promote the realization of the targets and plans set out in the Act, will not be amended to include municipal authorities within its scope. In contrast, the amendment introduces a new § 14 on municipal climate plans. Accordingly, a municipality will have an obligation to draw up a new climate plan or update an existing one at least once during the term of the city or municipal council. The plan must include:

• a target for the reduction of greenhouse gases in the municipality;

• actions to be taken in the municipality to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;

• information on the development of greenhouse gas emissions in the municipality;

• information on the monitoring of the realization of the plan; and

• other things deemed necessary.

Does the Act promote urban climate resilience? It is notable that the amended Climate Change Act will not contain an obligation to address adaptation in the municipal climate plans. Municipalities can, of course, also include adaptation targets and actions in the climate plans, but there will be no legal obligation to do so. It could be argued that this omission is likely to weaken the climate resilience dimension of the plans. A municipal climate plan that solely, or principally, focuses on targets and actions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions will neither address nor strengthen the municipality’s capacity to cope with the negative effects of climate change. Furthermore, the focus on emissions reduction does not encourage municipalities to adopt a more holistic view towards coping with climate change. Such a view could draw the attention of sub-national authorities to the reorganization of the functions and structures of their administration towards ‘climate-resilient pathways’ as advocated by the IPCC (Denton et al., 2014). The stance adopted in the amendment to the Climate Change Act is of course clear and feasible for the municipalities, but at the same time it perceives climate change governance and regulation in a rather narrow sense and lacks ambition in relation to climate change resilience.

The amended provisions of the Climate Change Act do not differentiate between rural and urban municipalities. This is understandable. In Finland, municipalities have broad autonomy and so it is not possible for the state to address targeted climate regulation towards cities responsible for the largest emis-

sion levels, for instance. It is important that the urban aspect of climate change governance, and resilience, is accounted for in city-level policymaking. Numerous Finnish cities already have climate change plans and strategies in place and municipalities have also formed networks that help them build capacity and learn from each other – which is especially useful for building up their resilience in face of climate change. These activities are of course based on voluntarism. Therefore, the new § 14 of the Finnish Climate Change Act is very important because it will subject all municipalities to the obligation to engage in climate change planning.

The fact that the municipal aspect of Finnish climate policy is now included in the amendment to the Climate Change Act is a welcome development as it brings legal rigour and uniformity to the urban climate planning. However, the climate resilience aspect remains unaddressed in either the urban or more general context under the relevant legislation. Consequently, cities’ climate resilience may be currently more effectively addressed through other routes than municipal climate plans – for instance, through urban planning and (re)development as a result from financial sector risk assessments.

Acknowledgements: Research for this paper was conducted under the Academy of Finland Strategic Research Council project 2035 Legitimacy (grant no. 335559). Funding from the Academy of Finland, Flagship (grant no. 337552) is also acknowledged. The author is grateful for the reviewers’ comments received on the paper.

Albrecht, E. and Coauthors, 2020: Ilmastopolitiikan hyväksyttävyys ja kansalaisosallistuminen ilmastolain uudistuksessa Ympäristöpolitiikan ja -oikeuden vuosikirja, XIII, 369–415.

Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2014: Urban Climate Change Resilience: A Synopsis https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/149164/ urban-climate-change-resilience-synopsis.pdf

ClientEarth, 2021: Navigating Net-Zero. Global Lessons in Climate Law-making https://www.clientearth.org/media/eg1ajv4x/net-zero-report-1210final-corrections.pdf

Denton, F. and Coauthors, 2014: Climate-resilient Pathways: Adaptation, Mitigation, and Sustainable Development. In IPCC: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part. A: Global and Sectoral Aspects (Cambridge University Press 2014) 1101–1131.

Honkonen, T., 2022: Indian cities’ climate resilience: what role for transnational environmental law? In van der Berg, A. & Verschuuren, J. (eds.): Urban Climate Resilience. The Role of Law (Edward Elgar 2022) 70–103.

IPCC 2014: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part. A: Global and Sectoral Aspects (Cambridge University Press).

Kulovesi, K. and Coauthors, 2020: Miltä näyttää vahva ilmastolaki? Oikeustieteilijöiden suosituksia Suomen ilmastolain uudistustyöhön CCEEL Policy

Brief No. 1 https://sites.uef.fi/cceel/wp-content/uploads/sites/185/UEF_Ilmastolain_uudistustyo_verkkoversio_17032020.pdf

Muinzer, T. L., 2020: National Climate Change Acts: The Emergence, Form and Nature of National Framework Climate Legislation (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Ulvi, T. and Coauthors, 2022: Kunnan ilmastosuunnitelman toteuttamisvaihtoehdot ilmastolaissa (Ministry of the Environment) https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/163857/YM_2022_5.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Received Nov 27, 2022, accepted Feb 3, 2023, first online Feb 21, 2023, published May 15, 2023

The way forward for gender-responsive climate adaptation in international climate law

Due to existing multi-dimensional social injustices, some gender groups experience climate change more unduly than others. It is therefore necessary that international climate law is intersectional and gender-responsive. Currently, on one hand, legal provisions developed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) feature gender equality as a core element. On the other hand, the process is constrained by political considerations, has a rather slow development and presents the need for a more inclusive approach as a whole.

RAIHANATUL JANNAT University of Eastern Finland Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law (CCEEL)

Climate change does not discriminate, in the sense that it adversely affects both physical and social environments (IPCC, 2022). However, due to existing multi-dimensional injustices within societies, some human groups may experience climate change disproportionately based on their perceived gender, race and social identities and economic status (IPCC, 2022). Widespread gender inequality in societies also ensure that women as a group are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change through having lesser social and political standings than men (UNFCCC, 2022). At the same time, women’s experiences also vary depending on the societal designs of the regions and their economic realities: such as women groups from wealthy economies in the global North may experience these impacts less prominently than other women groups from developing economies in the global South (IPCC, 2022). In general, gender inequality negatively affects women’s developmental growth and opportunities that can otherwise be utilised to tackle climate change and aggravate their existing social vulnerabilities, which has the capacity to exacerbate the impacts of climate change that they experience.

As such, climate action is most effective when it is intersectional and

can address the needs and considerations for all gender groups, allow their full participation in the designing and implementation of the measures, and contribute to social stability and equality (UNFCCC, 2022). At the international level, the UNFCCC is one in the mosaic of actors that govern climate action globally. However it is the prime entity that provides the framework basis for developing a substantial body of international climate law. This amalgamation of international climate law is fragmented and consists of complex combinations between principles, rules, regulations and recommendations, and interactions with other areas of international regulation that has relevance for governing climate action (Bodansky, 2017). In international climate law, adaptation is understood to be the action that allows human groups to better adjust to and cope with the perceived and expected changes, and exploit beneficial opportunities when available (IPCC, 2022). The goal of climate adaptation is twofold: i) to reduce the existing vulnerabilities of human groups and equip them to respond to the current impacts of climate change, and ii) further strengthen their capacity to adapt to climate impacts in the future by building on their resilience to climate change.

Gender-responsive climate adaptation encompasses the understanding of how gender inequality undermines inclusivity and continues to bolster discrimination within societies, and how this poses a risk to seriously impede climate action in the future (Morrow 2017). In practice, gender-responsive climate adaptation may manifest as initiatives or opportunities that contribute to the developmental growth of specific gender groups, but it is most important that any adaptation planning is intersectional and can address the needs for all gender groups. Adaptation measures that are not gender-responsive or have a biased focus on one gender can further worsen climate impacts by upholding society’s discriminatory power dynamics, negatively contributing to the existing vulnerabilities and failing to initiate a deep societal transformation that limits gender inequality from exacerbating climate impacts and vice versa. In the context of the Arctic at the moment, on one hand, resource-based industries have a biased male focus, and resource development in the region ignores needs of women as a group. On the other hand, scientific studies exploring gendered impacts of climate change in the region many times use prefixed assumptions and have a biased focus on the indigenous

female experiences, and mostly overlook the experiences of men as a group (Oddsdóttir, 2021). Such gender-specific and gender-prescriptive approaches can directly undermine intersectionality and further contribute to the vulnerabilities of women and girls in the Arctic.

Despite the interlinkages between climate action and gender equality, it took a long time for the UNFCCC to specifically address the gendered impacts of climate change through international law. From its inception, the UNFCCC sought to coordinate global climate action with emphasis on technical-economic solutions for climate mitigation and some development provisions for those country groups especially vulnerable to climate change (Bodansky, 2017). The first direct connection between gender equality and climate action came through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2014. Since then, however, climate negotiations increasingly mention gender-responsiveness and it is now featured as a crucial element in many climate adaptation instruments and agendas.

The Paris Agreement, which is one of the treaties under the UNFCCC and a landmark legal instrument for global climate action, imposes mandatory requirements and upholds non-mandatory recommendations for its country parties making several references to the need for gender-responsive climate adaptation (Bodansky, 2017). The UNFCCC’s National Adaptation Plans process obliges countries to communicate and update their adaptation priorities and implementation plans whereby countries are able to design and develop adaptation measures that integrate social and gender considerations and contribute to gender equality. The UNFCCC’s Enhanced Lima Work

Programme and its annexed Gender Action Plan also reiterates the need for context-specific gender-responsive climate action by upholding the interlinkages between climate action and sustainable development (UNFCCC Decision 3/CP.25, 2019). However, the current Gender Action Plan process is limited in its application as it focuses on mainstreaming gender-equality within the UNFCCC process only and does not monitor the progress on the ground.

From an optimistic viewpoint, it is reassuring to witness the rise in awareness for gender-responsive climate adaptation in the UNFCCC process. At the same time, however, the reality stands that global climate action is still very much driven by economic interests and susceptible to a technocratic attitude, as opposed to wholeheartedly embracing intersectional societal consideration and the path towards a just transition that shapes sustainable development (Morrow, 2021). Moreover, the international climate regime has limited enforcing capabilities and is politically confined to a ‘persuasive authority’ role. As such, even though there are some compelling instruments in place which are advancing gender-responsiveness in climate adaptation action, the current progress is at a much slower pace than desired and fails to initiate the transformational shift in societal norms for a better future (Morrow, 2021). Thus, the way forward for gender-responsive climate adaptation is better served by simultaneous developments on several fronts, including but not limited to:

i) Legal research and academic studies that broaden the strict peripheries of international climate law and support a broader and more inclusive view of law. This would provide the field of climate ad-

aptation a more diverse choice of tools, approaches and actors to incorporate the various social, legal and political understandings required to be adequately gender-responsive.

ii) Developments within the UNFCCC system that allows for a broader conciliative space between the concepts of climate action and gender equality, and within other international actors and financial institutions that also contribute to the international climate governance ecosystem as a whole.

iii) Developing better enforcing mechanisms in the UNFCCC system while balancing and upholding the existing bottom-up approaches that allow country parties to design and develop gender-responsive adaptation as per local and regional needs.

iv) Stronger support and better funding opportunities from the global community to actors at the local levels working on adaptation actions so that societal and political constraints maybe reduced, and transformation of the social systems, that contributes to climate-resilient development for women and for all, can be initiated.

Acknowledgements. This Research Letter is based on the ongoing PhD project ‘The role of transnational environmental law in building climate-resilient development of women: case studies from the Finnish Arctic and Bangladesh’ at the UEF Law School. I would like to thank my PhD supervisor Dr. Yulia Yamineva for her kind support with this paper. I am also thankful to the reviewers for their comments on this paper. Funding from the Academy of Finland, Flagship program for Atmospheric and Climate Competence Center (ACCC, Grant no 337552) is also acknowledged.

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