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In his opening speech, President Stubb promised more money for island nations whose living conditions are threatened by rising sea levels. At the same time, Finland is cutting climate finance hard.

Finland goes to climate meetings to promise new climate money to poor countries, but cuts it from its own budget many times more than this.

This happened both at the Baku climate meeting in Azerbaijan, which started on Tuesday, and at the Dubai climate meeting in the United Arab Emirates a year ago.

The President of the Republic, Alexander Stubb, told the news in Baku that Finland will give more climate finance to the poorest countries. Stubb spoke on Tuesday, along with other heads of state, at the opening ceremony of the meeting that opened the two-week talks in Baku.

Stubb mentioned the island states whose living conditions are most acutely threatened by the climate crisis due to sea level rise.

It is about a fund called Systematic Observations Finance Facility (SOFF), into which Finland plans to put 2.5 million euros, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With the money, the most vulnerable countries can acquire, for example, systems for early detection of weather and its extreme phenomena, such as floods.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (council) also made a similar promise of money in his opening speech at the Dubai meeting in the United Arab Emirates. He said that Finland would pay three million dollars to the then newly established climate damage compensation fund.

The president's and prime minister's promises in the festive speeches contradict the practical actions of the Finnish government. As a whole, the government led by Orpo is cutting money from the climate work of poor countries many times over.

Development organizations calculated in their recent report that the current government will make hundreds of millions of cuts to climate money during its term.

A large part of Finland's cuts are aimed at the green climate fund, which is the most important financing channel in terms of the Paris climate agreement. For example, poor African countries use the fund to reduce emissions, that is, in practice, to replace fossil energy with clean energy.

According to the report, Finland will drop its own contribution from one hundred million to 60 million. Foreign Trade and Development Minister Ville Tavio (ps) told about the cuts a year ago .