Suchergebnisse

AbstractBefore the COVID‐19 pandemic, infectious disease experts had postulated that the next pandemic is only a matter of time, and Finland, among other nations, had prepared for it. Yet the COVID‐19 pandemic crossed the customary political, functional, and temporal boundaries of crisis management to a surprising degree. This study analyses pandemic preparedness among Finnish infectious disease experts at the central government level before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic (2017–2021). The study is based on interview material, participant observation in the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare's infectious disease unit in 2017, and health security‐related document analysis. By analyzing expert perceptions of preparedness in two points of time, the study provides insights on the challenges that increasingly transboundary crises have posed for preparedness efforts. The experts perceived that pandemic preparedness would benefit from a more generic approach to planning and from more comprehensive risk assessments and policy advice. The analysis shows that Finnish crisis management had overlooked the extent of transboundedness of present‐day crises and is lacking consideration of how crises turn into chronic conditions that deplete capacities over time. The crisis man.agement regime needs to develop structures to better analyze systemic risks and to extend its timeframe to cover long‐term crises.

Since large-scale environmental disruptions have become chronic, policymakers need to consider the long-term consequences of urgent crisis decisions. We develop design principles for a decision platform addressing strategic environmental crisis management, by which we mean coordinated decisions during an environmental urgency that are sensitive to long-term path dependencies and policy errors. To enhance critical questioning of formal doctrines, the decision platform includes policymakers and sectoral experts as equal participants. The agenda for decisionmaking is structured around future scenarios to encourage the participants to imagine alternative ways of framing the decision problem. The agenda also discourages defensive heuristics with which decision-makers attempt to preserve their short-term reputation. The design principles for strategic environmental crisis management are based on urban experimentation. The barrier of implementation for similar experiments in other contexts is low because they assume no major overhaul in existing administration ; Peer reviewed

In security and foreign policy discourse, environmental issues have been discussed increasingly as security threats that require immediate action. Yet, as the traditional security sector does not provide straightforward means to deal with climate change and other environmental issues, this has prompted concerns over undue securitisation and ill-placed extreme measures. We argue that an effective policy to address foreseeable environmental security threats can only be developed and maintained by ensuring that it remains resolutely within the domain of civil society. In this article, we consider the case of Finland, where the policy concept of comprehensive security has been presented as the official guideline for security and preparedness activities in different sectors. Comprehensive security aims to safeguard the vital functions of society through cooperation between authorities, business operators, organisations, and citizens. We analyse the opportunities and challenges of Finland's comprehensive security policy in addressing environmental changes through a three-level framework of local, geopolitical and structural security impacts. Our empirical evidence is based on a set of expert interviews (n = 40) that represent a wide range of fields relevant to unconventional security issues. We find that the Finnish comprehensive security model provides an example of a wide and inclusive perspective to security which would allow for taking into account environmental security concerns. However, due to major challenges in the implementation of the model, it does not fully incorporate the long-term, cross-sectoral, and cascading aspects of environmental threats. This weakens Finland's preparedness against climate change which currently poses some of the most urgent environmental security problems. ; Peer reviewed

In security and foreign policy discourse, environmental issues have been discussed increasingly as security threats that require immediate action. Yet, as the traditional security sector does not provide straightforward means to deal with climate change and other environmental issues, this has prompted concerns over undue securitisation and ill-placed extreme measures. We argue that an effective policy to address foreseeable environmental security threats can only be developed and maintained by ensuring that it remains resolutely within the domain of civil society. In this article, we consider the case of Finland, where the policy concept of comprehensive security has been presented as the official guideline for security and preparedness activities in different sectors. Comprehensive security aims to safeguard the vital functions of society through cooperation between authorities, business operators, organisations, and citizens. We analyse the opportunities and challenges of Finland's comprehensive security policy in addressing environmental changes through a three-level framework of local, geopolitical and structural security impacts. Our empirical evidence is based on a set of expert interviews (n = 40) that represent a wide range of fields relevant to unconventional security issues. We find that the Finnish comprehensive security model provides an example of a wide and inclusive perspective to security which would allow for taking into account environmental security concerns. However, due to major challenges in the implementation of the model, it does not fully incorporate the long-term, cross-sectoral, and cascading aspects of environmental threats. This weakens Finland's preparedness against climate change which currently poses some of the most urgent environmental security problems.

The transition away from fossil fuel based infrastructure for heating and cooling has to happen on a scale and timetable with no historical precedent. As the systems are large and networked, path-dependencies constrain the transition that is further complicated by the diversity of stakeholders. Here we analyze the case of transitioning the district heating system in the city of Helsinki, Finland, within the target of a carbon neutral metropolitan area. Despite relatively advanced climate policies, path-dependencies on the political, technological-material and economical levels interact in creating a "wicked" problem with no obvious solution and potential for backsliding. It is in this context that a possibility of a green paradox arises: despite the explicit commitment of all stakeholders toward carbon dioxide emission reductions, the combination of the path-dependencies may result in a transition that increases emissions. Our results highlight policy implications of path-dependencies for researchers, government and business. ; Peer reviewed

As a part of its climate policy, Finnish government facilitated the creation of low-carbon roadmaps by sectors of industry. The roadmap process and the roadmaps were promoted as an international benchmark in COP26. They also form a part of the policy process towards the government's goal of carbon neutrality by 2035. We analyse the need and role of biomass use contained in the roadmaps of the key sectors and compare it to data on available forest biomass. The combined need for forest biomass in the roadmaps is well over 140 Mm(3), which is over double that of the logging level in 2019, and drastically over the roadmaps' projection of future sustainable yield. This creates a challenge for the carbon neutrality goal via the loss of carbon sinks in forests, risking the carbon neutrality target and other sustainability goals. Although, up to date, the roadmaps present the most detailed picture of industrial transformation towards carbon neutrality in an EU member state, they are made unrealistic by the omission of a comprehensive material perspective. The addition of such a perspective and a clear setting of boundaries would increase the viability of the roadmaps as a policy tool. ; Peer reviewed

As the literature on environmental security has evolved and widened, knowledge of the full range of potential consequences of environmental change for different societies remains scattered. This article contributes to a more comprehensive approach to the implications of environmental change by providing a three-level framework of the security impacts. In particular, it will address gaps in knowledge by pointing out the relevance of geopolitical and structural factors behind environmental security impacts. The article will focus on the cases of two countries, Finland and Sweden—both seen as stable, high-income democracies that are well equipped to adapt to climate risks. Yet even under these conditions, preparedness to threat-prevention will not follow without a recognition of the full range of risks, including ones that are linked to socio-economic and geopolitical factors. On the basis of the Finnish and Swedish cases, the article proposes an analytical framework of three categories of environmental security impacts: local, geopolitical and structural. ; Peer reviewed

Despite an increasing recognition that environmental change may have implications for security, there only are few policies to address the issue. This article will look at environmental security policies in Finland and Sweden and propose ways to develop more effective measures. It relies on a three-level framework that aims to enable the identification of environmental security impacts by categorising them into local, geopolitical and structural ones. The article will examine present environmental security strategies and policies in Finland and Sweden, consider their efficacy for addressing various kinds of impacts and point out approaches that are currently missing. Based on the discussion, it argues that a comprehensive policy approach is needed to tackle environmental security impacts. This requires closer coordination and interchange between sectors as well as strategic intent. In addition, further research is needed on the structural impacts of mitigating and adapting to environmental change. ; Peer reviewed

Ekologisten kriisien hillitsemiseksi yhteiskuntien on toteutettava nopea kestävyysmurros. Teollisuuden uudistaminen on tässä tehtävässä ratkaisevassa asemassa. Poliittisen talouden tutkimuksessa on kiinnitetty huomiota erityisesti valtioiden tärkeään rooliin kestävyysmurroksen ohjaamisessa. Ekologisen kriisin nopean hillinnän vuoksi kasvavaa kiinnostusta on kohdistunut myös uudenlaisen teollisuuspolitiikan ja talouden suunnittelun tutkimukseen. Suunnitelmallista teollista kestävyyssiirtymää koskevat tutkimushavainnot ovat kuitenkin jääneet toistaiseksi hajanaisiksi ja yleistasoisiksi. Artikkeli osallistuu poliittisen talouden tutkimuksen piirissä käytävään kestävyysmurroskeskusteluun analysoimalla teollisen siirtymän roolia kestävyysmurroksessa. Artikkeli keskittyy teollisen siirtymän suunnittelun edellytyksiin Suomen kaltaisessa pitkälle teollistuneessa valtiossa ja ehdottaa teollisen siirtymän edistämiseksi tiedevetoisen suunnittelun ideaa. Artikkeli osoittaa, että tiedevetoisella suunnittelulla voi olla teollista siirtymää ja siihen tarvittavaa tiedontuotantoa merkittävästi edistävä vaikutus. Tiedevetoisen suunnittelun konkretisoimiseksi artikkeli ehdottaa lopuksi teollisen siirtymän suunnitteluyksikköä institutionaalisena ratkaisuna kestävyysmurroksen edistämiseksi kansallisessa kontekstissa.