Environmentalists smear Finland's parliament in red paint

By Leila Nezirevic

LONDON (AA) - Two climate groups sprayed red paint Wednesday on Finland's parliament building to protest the peat industry, according to media reports.

Activists from the Finnish branch of the UK-based environmental group Extinction Rebellion, or Elokapina, and the Swedish organization Aterstall Vatmarker (Restore Wetlands) smeared several granite columns at the main entrance with a red substance resembling blood "to draw attention to the climate-disastrous peat mines in Sweden run by the Finnish state-owned company Neova,” the groups said in a statement.

Ten activists carried out the protest to "demand political action" in ending the practice of peat extraction.

"The peat industry is one of the environmentally harmful industries that the Finnish state open-handedly supports through subsidies. We cannot stress enough how dangerous it is to continue making unsustainable production profitable, yet this is exactly what our government is now doing, with our tax money," said in the statement.

Dozens were detained at the scene after officers responded to a call about the protest at around 8 a.m. local time, Helsinki police said in a statement.

Several politicians immediately condemned the protest, including Prime Minister Petteri Orpo who said it was "completely incomprehensible and unacceptable vandalism,” according to the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.

"Finland is a free democracy. We have the right to demonstrate and influence things, but we have civilized ways of doing it," said Orpo.

"By shedding light on the state-owned Neova's peat mining in Sweden, we shed light on the horrible fact that our state has its hands deep in accelerating the crisis estimated to kill billions in this century alone. This cannot go on. That is why we act, and act in visually striking way that cannot be left unnoticed," according to the statement by the groups.

Elokapina has carried out several protests during the summer, including one joined by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, in which thousands participated.

In 2022, the majority state-owned energy firm Neova announced plans to resume energy peat production in Finland, following a decline in wood imports from Russia, according to national broadcaster Yle.

The Finnish government in 2020 set a target of halving peat use within a decade as part of its climate strategy, a move it said was needed because burning peat for electricity emits more carbon dioxide than coal.

Finally saw a combined 10% decrease in the consumption of fossil fuels and peat in 2023, according to Statistics Finland.