Finnish Policy Entrepreneurship in The Arctic Council: The Case of Black Carbon Emissions
Eerola, Tiia (2020)
Eerola, Tiia
2020
Master's Degree Programme in Leadership for Change
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2020-05-14
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202004243701
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202004243701
Tiivistelmä
Global warming – causing the climate to change – is one of the most pervasive global concerns, because it is increasingly impacting everyone’s live. The main contributors to global warming are carbon dioxide and BC (black carbon) emissions, both deadly air pollutants. BC emissions, that are a product of the combustion of biogenic and fossil fuels, have a high mean radiative forcing, and thus, they are one of the most dangerous climate forcers. Arctic area is where the impacts are the most visible, because the region’s ice surfaces are rapidly melting, which does not only impact humans living in the area, but also the ecosystems. BC emissions cause similar impacts across the world. Arctic Council, a high-level intergovernmental forum, addresses these issues in cooperation between member states, permanent participants and observers. One of the main focus points of the council is to protect the sensitive Arctic environment, which is impacted by global behaviour, for example, through the amount of emitted BC to the atmosphere.
2017-2019 marked Finnish chairmanship in the Arctic Council during which high emphasis was placed on explaining why reducing BC emissions is critical and facilitating action to reduce the emission. BC emission reductions were – and are still – considered as a Finnish national goal, which is strengthened by President Sauli Niinistö’s emphasis on the topic. “If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe”, is one of the sentences that President Niinistö often includes in his speeches when discussing global warming. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore Finnish contributions to the decision-making in the Arctic Council in terms of sustainable development whist focusing on BC emissions. In particular, it is investigated why BC emissions are a topic of utmost importance for the Finnish state, gauged what kind of a message on dangerous BC emissions is spread within the Arctic Council and explored what kind of perceptions the member states, permanent participants and observers have about the message. In addition, the aim is to shed light on the question of what kind of international regime for climate change action Finland desires the Arctic Council to develop into.
To understand Finland’s role as a forerunner in raising awareness about BC emissions and facilitating action to reduce them, policy entrepreneurship theory is utilized. Policy entrepreneurship has been widely acknowledged as a critical part for opening and utilizing windows of opportunities, creating change momentum and facilitating change. Policy entrepreneurs can, however, also prevent change from happening. In the case of Finland, the nation is clearly advocating for global BC emission reductions, and thus, it is a change driven policy entrepreneur. Qualitative methods, such as semi-structured theme interviews and qualitative content analysis, are employed to provide an in-depth understanding of why reducing BC emissions is of robust importance for Finland and what kind of policy entrepreneurial characteristics Finland obtained to promote them during its chairmanship. Due to President Niinistö’s high profile position as a BC emission reduction advocate, press conference material between President Niinistö and his colleagues in other Arctic states are also analysed. Combining two data collections methods enabled a more holistic understanding of the difference between national and individual policy entrepreneurial characteristics.
This study makes theoretical contributions by revealing that the policy entrepreneurial characteristics – leading by example, network building and skill to define problems – are applicable to a nation, while leadership skills are solely possessed by individuals. Even though the policy entrepreneurial characteristics of Finland are context-specific, the findings disclose that by unifying the emission reduction message and tackling how emissions released into the atmosphere through recreational behaviour could be decreased, Finland could better succeed in building its network and in reaching its long-term emission reduction targets. Therefore, the study discusses environmental diplomacy of Finland in the case of the Arctic Council. However, there was not a clear change taking place in the Arctic Council during the period under analysis, and thus, the study highlights an unexplored area in the literature – policy entrepreneurial role of a nation. While the research gap is approached through the characteristics in this study, more research is needed on the difference between national and individual policy entrepreneurship as well as on the policy entrepreneurial strategies of a nation.
2017-2019 marked Finnish chairmanship in the Arctic Council during which high emphasis was placed on explaining why reducing BC emissions is critical and facilitating action to reduce the emission. BC emission reductions were – and are still – considered as a Finnish national goal, which is strengthened by President Sauli Niinistö’s emphasis on the topic. “If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe”, is one of the sentences that President Niinistö often includes in his speeches when discussing global warming. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore Finnish contributions to the decision-making in the Arctic Council in terms of sustainable development whist focusing on BC emissions. In particular, it is investigated why BC emissions are a topic of utmost importance for the Finnish state, gauged what kind of a message on dangerous BC emissions is spread within the Arctic Council and explored what kind of perceptions the member states, permanent participants and observers have about the message. In addition, the aim is to shed light on the question of what kind of international regime for climate change action Finland desires the Arctic Council to develop into.
To understand Finland’s role as a forerunner in raising awareness about BC emissions and facilitating action to reduce them, policy entrepreneurship theory is utilized. Policy entrepreneurship has been widely acknowledged as a critical part for opening and utilizing windows of opportunities, creating change momentum and facilitating change. Policy entrepreneurs can, however, also prevent change from happening. In the case of Finland, the nation is clearly advocating for global BC emission reductions, and thus, it is a change driven policy entrepreneur. Qualitative methods, such as semi-structured theme interviews and qualitative content analysis, are employed to provide an in-depth understanding of why reducing BC emissions is of robust importance for Finland and what kind of policy entrepreneurial characteristics Finland obtained to promote them during its chairmanship. Due to President Niinistö’s high profile position as a BC emission reduction advocate, press conference material between President Niinistö and his colleagues in other Arctic states are also analysed. Combining two data collections methods enabled a more holistic understanding of the difference between national and individual policy entrepreneurial characteristics.
This study makes theoretical contributions by revealing that the policy entrepreneurial characteristics – leading by example, network building and skill to define problems – are applicable to a nation, while leadership skills are solely possessed by individuals. Even though the policy entrepreneurial characteristics of Finland are context-specific, the findings disclose that by unifying the emission reduction message and tackling how emissions released into the atmosphere through recreational behaviour could be decreased, Finland could better succeed in building its network and in reaching its long-term emission reduction targets. Therefore, the study discusses environmental diplomacy of Finland in the case of the Arctic Council. However, there was not a clear change taking place in the Arctic Council during the period under analysis, and thus, the study highlights an unexplored area in the literature – policy entrepreneurial role of a nation. While the research gap is approached through the characteristics in this study, more research is needed on the difference between national and individual policy entrepreneurship as well as on the policy entrepreneurial strategies of a nation.