Helsinki and Tampere adopt 'carbon waste' model to curb tourism emissions

The Urban Climate Leaders in Tourism network, together with the cities of Helsinki and Tampere, unveiled a new carbon "waste management" model that aims to help tourism companies deal with residual greenhouse gas emissions that are hard or impossible to eliminate.

Developed with input from consultancy Activist Agency Oy, the model treats residual carbon like a waste stream: prevent emissions first, then reduce and recycle where possible, and finally remove and store what is unavoidable. Jukka Punamäki, senior planner for sustainable tourism at the City of Helsinki, says the goal is to boost use of high-quality carbon removals in tourism while keeping emission cuts the sector's primary strategy.

Matti Pollari, Visit Tampere’s development manager for sustainable tourism, compares the concept to traditional waste management: treat carbon as a business-generated waste stream with prevention as the first option, followed by recycling and, as a last resort, permanent storage. The model highlights removals such as biochar, mineralization and direct air capture with storage (DACCS), and requires removals to be verifiable, additional and long-lived.

Organisers want the approach to strengthen the credibility of tourism-sector climate claims as regulation tightens, by clearly separating reductions, residual emissions and financing for removals. The network is seeking partners to pilot and refine the concept and will host an open online meeting on 1 December to connect tourism companies with carbon-removal providers.

Members include major Finnish tourism operators such as Scandic Hotels, Sokos Hotels, Strawberry and Lapland Hotels, with Helsinki and Visit Tampere acting as facilitators. Milla Öystilä, chair of the Suomenlinna Board, urged local industry to work with carbon-removal firms to scale solutions and invited interested parties to the event.

The initiative builds on earlier local work to shape Tampere’s tourism strategy by forming a tourism steering group earlier this year.