Greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2022 – the land use sector was a net emission source

Emissions fell from the previous year

According to preliminary data, total emissions in 2022 without the land use sector fell by three per cent from the previous year and were 35 per cent lower than in 1990.

The energy sector has a significant impact on the annual variation of total emissions. According to the preliminary calculation, emissions in the energy sector in 2022 were 33.0 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, which was 72 per cent of total emissions without the land use sector.

The fall in the consumption of natural gas due to the high price of natural gas and the termination of pipeline import from Russia decreased emissions in the energy sector by 1.9 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent from the previous year. On the other hand, the growth in the consumption of hard coal increased emissions by 0.8 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. Emissions from transport decreased by 0.2 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.

Emissions from the industrial processes and product use sector (incl. F-gases) amounted to 5.0 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2022, and they fell by six per cent from the year before mainly because of the decrease in steel production and the renewal of the production process of nitric acid.

Emissions in the agriculture sector amounted to 6.2 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. Emissions remained on level with the year before. Emissions from the waste sector went down by five per cent from 2021 to 2022, being 1.7 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.

Land use sector was a net emission source

The LULUCF sector, that is, the land use, land-use change and forestry sector, was a net emission source (4.5 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent) in 2022 similarly as in the previous year. The sector's emissions exceeded the amount of carbon sequestration in different pools during the year, that is, they exceeded the sum of net removals in the forest land use category, -4.8 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, and in the harvested wood products, -3.3 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. The sum of emissions and removals in 2022 in the sector, 4.5 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, was 1.0 million tonnes higher than the sum of emissions and removals in the year before.

In 2022, the net removals of the forest land category, -4.8 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, were five per cent lower than in the previous year. This was in particular due to larger emissions from the carbon pools of soil, litter and dead wood in peatland forests and the lower accumulation of carbon into corresponding pools of forests on mineral soil. On the other hand, the carbon sequestration in the tree biomass was 16 per cent bigger than in the previous year because the felling volume and total drain of the growing stock of trees were two per cent lower than in the previous year. In addition to the development in forest land, the difference from the previous year in the entire land use sector was also affected by the lower carbon sequestration in the harvested wood products in 2022 and larger emissions from cropland soil.

The calculation of forest land was developed as concerns the tree biomass: The conversion of annual increment of stem volume to biomass growth was modified so that the method better complies with that used in the calculation of the drain, i.e. biomass removed from the pool of living trees in fellings or by natural mortality. This calculation change was visible as a lower growth of the tree biomass and thus as a smaller sink of forest land in the time series. Further information about the results and calculation for the land use sector can be found in the review (in Finnish) and in Luke’s release (in Finnish and in Swedish).

Sector-specific emission data and Finland's emission reduction commitments are described in more detail in the review of the statistics (in Finnish) on 14 December 2023.

Revisions of data

The data in this release are based on more detailed and exhaustive source data and methods than the instant preliminary data released in May. Revisions of data are also described in the review of the statistics (in Finnish) on 14 December 2023.

Preliminary data according to this release will become revised in March in the reporting to the EU. The revised data will be published as a database release on 15 March 2024.