President Ahtisaari makes climate pledge

“Developing countries need more funding for the mitigation of climate change,” says former President of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari.

The founder and Chairman of the Board of CMI (Crisis Management Initiative) Martti Ahtisaari is committed to reducing his greenhouse gas emissions, in particular those originating from air travel. The Finnish Climate Pledge website collects climate pledges from individuals and allows the calculation of individual’s carbon footprint.

”By reducing greenhouse gas emissions we can contribute to the mitigation of climate change so that the conditions in most vulnerable countries will not become unbearable”, Ahtisaari says. Climate change impacts are often strongest in developing countries which are threatened by worsening drought, floods and storms as the global temperature rises. It will become increasingly difficult, or even impossible for these countries to recover from such phenomena without the support from other countries.

In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in daily activities, everyone can participate in climate change projects in developing countries. For example, on the UNFCCC website climateneutralnow.org it is easy to compensate greenhouse gas emissions. The average annual carbon footprint of a Finn, 9000 kg, can be compensated by less than 50 euros. UN raises these funds for climate projects in developing countries.

“Developing countries need more funding for climate change mitigation and production of renewable energy. By compensating our own carbon footprint we can help other countries and also reduce our own climate impact”, Ahtisaari concludes.

Make your climate pledge at: http://ilmastolupaus.fi