Fair energy transition in Eastern Finland
October 22, 2025
Minna Näsman
The Eastern Finland Energy Forum in Joensuu focused on the progress of the energy transition, particularly on the eastern border of Finland and Europe.
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The themes of the first day of the event were security and resilience, as well as infrastructure construction. The second day focused on energy and sustainability innovations, the fairness and social acceptability of the transition, and cooperation within and between regional hydrogen valleys.
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Who will shape the future and how?
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The JustH2Transit project, funded by the Strategic Research Council, provided participants with a forum to consider the fairness issues associated with two different scenarios for the implementation of the hydrogen transition.
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The first scenario envisages a situation where there is disagreement in society about the distribution of benefits and disadvantages, and the transition does not progress much beyond the pilot phase. Even the pilots remain mainly in Western Finland. In Eastern Finland, this situation would be detrimental to those people who would not benefit from new jobs and services. Inequality between regions would increase, and there would be no climate benefits. On the other hand, biodiversity could benefit, as there would be no new construction.
In the second scenario, the state takes an active role in steering the transition in terms of industrial, environmental, and regional policy. In this case, the state is also expected to finance the transition. In this scenario, both the national economy and businesses would benefit.
For regions, the latter scenario could mean specialization based on their own strengths. Emissions reductions could be achieved by replacing fossil materials with clean energy and raw materials. This would require a significant increase in electricity production, which would mean construction, which could weaken biodiversity.​​​
The participants found it difficult to see which party's agenda this option could fit into. On the other hand, examples of this type of government intervention have been found in history.
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In addition to scenario work, Nina Wessberg and Essi Laitinen from VTT and Pasi Rikkonen and Aino Anttila from LUKE offered participants an overview of other research being conducted in the project to achieve a fair and sustainable transition. For example, an analysis of the transition in four different regions in Finland is currently being completed, and preliminary results for Eastern Finland were presented.
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Solutions emerge from multi-perspective discussions
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After the scenario workshop, Minna Näsman from Akordi and Aino Anttila from LUKE facilitated Hydrogen Impact Forum, a multi-perspective group discussion on the practical implications of the hydrogen projects planned for Eastern Finland. The participants represented hydrogen project development, urban planning, nature conservation and civil society, municipal support for business, and regional climate and environmental perspectives.
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One of the outcomes of the discussion was the image of a grandmother living in Valtimo whose Fiat might be left in the yard and her medicines at the pharmacy if we were to make the much-needed transition to raise the price of fossil fuels.
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Understandably, politicians are not enthusiastic about promoting a vision of the future in which the mobility of people living in remote areas, i.e., their opportunities to live as part of the rest of society, is reduced. That would not win many votes in the next election.
The discussion led to the realization that politically acceptable solutions are also needed to replace these cars with clean mobility options. One such proposal was to make the service structure mobile, thereby reducing the reasons for driving the Fiat. Another proposal was to support these people in replacing their fossil driven cars with cleaner ones. For a wider target group, support is not as vital.