Vaasa Climate Commitment

The Vaasa Climate commitment carbon neutrality ecosystem project aims to create a carbon neutrality ecosystem between different actors in Vaasa.

The project will include a participation campaign for businesses and educational institutions in the region, a joint climate and adaptation roadmap and a method for monitoring its effectiveness, including the role of budgeting in verifying the effectiveness of actions.

The project measures will contribute to the achievement of the City of Vaasa's carbon neutrality target, which will in turn benefit the whole region. As the base city only produces part of the city's emissions, it is essential that the city's carbon neutrality target is shared by other actors in the region.

The aim of the project is to involve businesses and educational institutions in the region in achieving the carbon neutrality target and to create an ecosystem between the city, educational institutions and businesses to promote the measures required by the carbon neutrality target.

In addition to a strong culture of cooperation, Vaasa has the advantage of significant RDI expertise and training from universities and higher education institutions, the exploitation of which will also play a key role in achieving the city's strategic carbon neutrality goal.

This project will create an ecosystem that will allow a more systematic use of higher education RDI skills and students for the needs of both the city and businesses in the region. It will also improve the conditions for students to integrate permanently into the city and the region. Vaasa's strong culture of cooperation will be highlighted and harnessed to promote carbon neutrality through project measures.

An important overarching theme of the project is to show that we are a major energy technology development region that is internationally carbon neutral.

Vaasa is a European Green Leaf City for 2026. The award, granted by the European Commission, is given to cities that promote sustainable development and are committed to advancing environmental and climate action. During our Green Leaf year, we will take climate and environmental action, showcase Vaasa’s expertise, and encourage residents, businesses, communities and universities to get involved. The theme of our Green Leaf year is: Making a Difference Makes Us Happy in Vaasa.