Two climate groups spray-painted Finland’s parliament building crimson in protest of the peat business according to media sources.
Activists from the Finnish branch of the UK-based environmental group Extinction Rebellion, or Elokapina, and the Swedish organization Aterstall Vatmarker (Restore Wetlands), smeared several granite columns at the main entrance with a red substance resembling blood “to draw attention to the climate-disastrous peat mines in Sweden run by the Finnish state-owned company Neova,” according to a statement.
Ten activists staged the protest to “demand political action” to cease the practice of peat extraction.
“The peat industry is one of the environmentally harmful industries that the Finnish state open-handedly supports through subsidies. We cannot stress enough how dangerous it is to continue making unsustainable production profitable, yet this is exactly what our government is now doing, with our tax money,” said in the statement.
Dozens were held on the scene after officers reacted to a complaint about the protest at about 8 a.m. local time, Helsinki police said in a statement.
Several lawmakers instantly criticized the demonstration, including Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who described it as “completely incomprehensible and unacceptable vandalism,” according to Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.
“Finland is a free democracy.” Orpo stated, “We have the right to demonstrate and influence things, but we do so in civilized ways.”
According to national radio Yle, the majority state-owned energy corporation Neova wants to resume energy peat production in Finland in 2022, following a fall in Russian wood imports.
As part of its climate plan, the Finnish government set a 2020 aim of halving peat use within a decade, citing the fact that burning peat for electricity produces more carbon dioxide than coal.
