The Finnish Act on the Environmental Damage Fund will establish a government-maintained fund to compensate for environmental damage, replaces earlier law.
The Fund aims to help ensure that operators meet their environmental obligations without the state having to intervene financially, it will be funded by contributions from operators whose activities may pose a risk of creating environmental pollution.
Fund will pay for costs related to preventing and restoring environmental pollution, as well as for damage caused where liable party is unknown, insolvent, or unavailable.
Start of Fees Collection
Thousands of operators will be obliged to pay, environmental damage charges will be levied either once or annually, in 2025 one-off charges of €400 will be paid into Fund.
Obligation to pay is based on the carrying out of an activity that creates pollution risk.
Applies to almost all activities subject to authorization, notification, registration under the Environmental Protection Act e.g. mining, energy production, fuel distribution.
Amount of the environmental damage charge is determined by the risk of pollution associated with the activity, information on activities and charges available online.
Charges levied by South Ostrobothnia Center for Economic Affairs, Transport and the Environment, will send out payment decisions to operators covered by one-off charge in 2025, most activities supervized by municipality environmental protection authority.
Annual environmental damage levies of €200 to €30,000 will be introduced in 2026 and will always apply to activities carried out by operators in the previous year.
Effectiveness
Environmental Damage Fund and fees collection will start operation on Jan. 1, 2025
