Climate work indicators help municipalities and regions in monitoring the impacts of climate work and selecting new climate actions. This document describes the calculation principles used by the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) in compiling the climate work indicators, which relate to emissions development, energy production and transport. The indicators are published using Power BI.
General
The climate indicators have been calculated for all Finnish municipalities and regions. In addition, the indicators can be examined for all Hinku municipalities or the whole of Finland.
Development of greenhouse gas emissions
Schedule for updating data: Annually, after the final results of the regional emissions calculation are complete.
The indicator shows the annual usage-based greenhouse gas emissions of the selected area (municipality, region), calculated according to the regional emissions calculation model (ALas) using Hinku calculation principles.
Energy indicators
Schedule for updating data: Annually, after the final results of the regional emissions calculation are complete. The capacity and production of solar electricity is surveyed separately.
Final energy consumption
The indicator is derived from the regional emissions calculation. [VA1] Final energy consumption includes the end use of energy in all sectors included in the emissions calculation without Hinku calculation boundaries. The calculation does not include the energy consumption of domestic air traffic or icebreakers.
The final energy consumption differs from Statistics Finland’s final energy consumption in terms of energy consumption in industry, which is mainly due to the limitations of the data available for regional emissions calculation and partly due to calculation differences.
Oil consumption for energy production
The indicator estimating oil consumption for energy production is derived from the background data and calculation principles of the regional emissions calculation. The calculation includes all oil consumption for energy production in separate heating (light and heavy fuel oil), district heating, industry, machinery, water transport and diffuse industrial and agricultural sources.
Consumer electricity, housing
The indicator describes the amount of electricity consumption used in housing (does not include excluding electric heating). The calculation is based on the regional emissions calculation.
Heating energy consumption of residential buildings
The indicator describes the consumption of heating energy used in housing (oil heating, district heating, electric heating, geothermal heating, wood heating, and other separate heating – gas, heavy fuel oil, peat and coal). The calculation is based on the regional emissions calculation.
Production and capacity of solar power
As there are no nationwide municipality-specific data on grid-connected solar power capacity, Syke collected the data on the development of solar power capacity through surveys from grid companies [VA2] in the spring of 2022. The indicator [VA3] does not include small household solar plants that are not connected to the grid, nor does it include power plants of more than 1 MW.[VA4]
Of the 104 distribution network companies in Finland, 77 companies provided municipality-specific data. The total capacity data of the missing 26 companies [VA5] was obtained from the Energy Authority, but it was not possible to allocate this data between the municipalities in the companies’ operating areas; instead, the entire solar power capacity was allocated to the main location in the company’s operating area. Cumulative capacity was calculated municipality-specifically from the capacities of new plants connected to the grid annually, starting from 2017.
The annual amount of solar power production was estimated on the basis of municipal capacities by using data on radiation conditions in the regions’ reference locations. Finally, the production volumes of municipalities were adjusted so that the total production of all municipalities corresponded to the total production of solar electricity in mainland Finland as reported by Statistics Finland. This amount also includes small household production estimated by Statistics Finland, which is not connected to the grid.
No information was received from Åland’s electricity network operators on the municipal capacities of solar electricity, so for Åland, only the annual production volume of solar electricity for the whole region as reported by Ålands statistik- och utredningsbyrå is available.
Production of wind power
Municipality-specific data on available wind power capacity is obtained from the Finnish Wind Power Association’s project list (Finnish Wind Power Association, 2022). Municipality-specific wind power production is calculated by allocating the total amount of wind power production reported by Statistics Finland (Statistics Finland, 2022) to municipalities in proportion to their capacities.
Buildings using geothermal heating
The number of buildings using geothermal heat and their combined floor area were retrieved from the Building and Dwelling Register (BDR)maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV). However, the system does not contain reliable information on all buildings that have changed their heating method, as not all renovations carried out in the old building stock[VA6] apply for a building permit or action permit, and the information is not necessarily updated from the municipalities’ data all the way to the BDR.
Transport indicators
For Mainland Finland, the transport indicators have been collected from the open data on registered vehicles published quarterly by Traficom. From 2019, the indicators show the situation on the last day of each year, but the data for 2017 and 2018 are from the 30 September, as no data from the end of the year was available.
Åland’s data were received from Åland’s vehicle authority (Ålands Fordonsmyndighet) for 2020 and 2021.
Schedule for updating data: annually in April
Number of passenger cars and their emissions
The annual development of the number of passenger cars was calculated from the vehicle register. Passenger cars include categories M1 (passenger cars) and M1G (SUVs). The average emission factor (gCO2/km) of the vehicles of a municipality or region is calculated from vehicle-specific emission factors of the vehicle register. The data from the register have been supplemented by estimating missing gCO2/km values according to the data of the vehicles (year of first registration, propulsion system and engine displacement) for which the emission factor is available.
Numbers and shares of electric, plug-in hybrid and gas cars
The annual development of the number of alternative propulsion systems for passenger cars (electric cars, plug-in hybrids and gas cars) and their shares of the passenger car fleet were calculated from the vehicle register.
For plug-in hybrids, data were only available from 2018 for Mainland Finland and from 2021 for the Åland Islands, as earlier data do not distinguish plug-in hybrids from self-charging/mild hybrids in the vehicle register. The number of plug-in hybrids in Mainland Finland in 2017 and in Åland in 2020 was determined from register data on the basis of vehicle models and specific emission factors.
Charging stations and gas filling stations
The number of charging stations for electric cars has been collected from the latauskartta.fi website, starting from 2019 (from 2021 in the case of the Åland Islands). Here, a charging station refers to a station which can include one or several charging points. Information on gas filling stations was collected from Gasum’s map service, starting from 2019.