FINLAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Tarja Pirinen, Fiiu Linninen, Malin Holm and Jaakko Klemettilä, HPP Attorneys Ltd
The legislative change also sets out the process for deviating from the environmental objectives in connection with environmental and water per - mits. The scope of application of the deviations is likely to remain fairly limited also in continu - ance, since the requirements for granting a devi - ation would be not changed. Accordingly – eg, deviation due to discharge of wastewater is only possible if a body of surface water would dete - riorate from high status to good status as a result of new sustainable human development activi - ties. The deviation is more likely to be applied in the case of new modifications to the physical characteristics of a surface water body. The time set for achieving the good status of groundwater and good ecological status of bodies of surface waters cannot be postponed after 2027. The possible impact of this on the classification of bodies of surface waters and the permitting of projects that discharge waste waters to bodies of surface water not in good status is to be seen. Proposal to Restore the Procedure for the Revision of Environmental Permit Regulations One legislative change that is being prepared and may in the future impact permitting of min - ing projects is the proposal to restore the proce - dure for the revision of permit regulations under the Environmental Protection Act. The revision would be intended to focus only on the necessary permit provisions for emissions from operations and monitoring of operations and their impacts, such as emission limit val - ues. In view of the uncertainty of the impacts, in particular permit regulations for discharges into water could be subject to revision. The proposed procedure would involve a more extensive revi - sion of the permit than allowed under the current Act, based, among other things, on the novelty
of the technology to be introduced in the opera - tion. The revision, as proposed, could only be applied once after the commencement of a new activ - ity. However, an order for revision regarding the same activity could be reissued if, as a result of a substantial change in the activity, the relevant permit had to be amended. The amendment is planned to enter into force on 1 January 2026. This change could impact environmental per - mitting of mines since long-term modelling of – eg, impacts of emissions from mines to bodies of surface waters or groundwater is challeng - ing and, despite careful modelling and expert estimations, there may remain uncertainties in relation thereto in the permitting phase. With the revision of the environmental permit regulations, one could avoid the granting of the permit only for a fixed term or, in the worst case, rejection of the permit application due to such uncertainties based on the precautionary principle. Advancing the Circular Economy Traditionally, Finland is known as a pioneer of the circular economy, given that it drafted the world’s first national roadmap to a circular econ - omy in 2016. More recently, Finland promotes the circular economy through legislation and aims to increase Finland’s material efficiency and carbon-neutrality. This mindset is further reflected in the Ministry of the Environment’s initiative to replace the exist - ing Waste Act with a new Circular Economy Act – the main purpose of which is to clarify leg - islation in the waste sector and strengthen the life cycle perspective of the regulation. The aim is to reduce the regulatory burden, clarify the relationship between waste regulation and prod - uct and chemical regulation, and to develop the
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