New Contribution from Finland to Mitigate Black Carbon 

At the Arctic Ministerial Meeting in Rovaniemi in May 2019, Finland announced that it will allocate an additional EUR 1 million to the Arctic Council Project Support Instrument (PSI), which is managed by NEFCO (Nordic Environment Finance Corporation), to support project financing for mitigating black carbon and other types of pollution in the Arctic region, NEFCO reports in a newsletter. 

To accelerate the reductions of black carbon emissions, Finland has actively been addressing the importance of mitigating black carbon emissions during its Arctic Council Chairmanship 2017-2019 and has allocated resources for regional and global black carbon reduction initiatives. With its new contribution to the PSI, Finland also wishes to support the co-operation of the Arctic Council Working Groups on this issue.

PSI financing is available to small and medium-sized projects of the Arctic Council Working Groups in the fields of reducing black carbon, methane and other short lived climate pollutants as well as CO2 emissions, hazardous waste management, such as elimination of mercury, ozone depleting substances and persistent organic pollutants, and protecting biodiversity from the effects of pollution, among others.