HELSINKI, June 21 (Xinhua) -- The city of Lahti, in southern Finland, on Friday rejoiced in its appointment as the European Green Capital of the year 2021.
Lahti boasts to be the first city in the world that has created a personal emission trade tool for its inhabitants.
The town has introduced a mobile application that automatically collects information about the mobility of its user. Initially 1,300 inhabitants are connected, local media reported. Lahti has 120,000 inhabitants.
In the personal carbon trading, citizens benefit from reducing their own emissions from mobility, through using a bicycle instead of a car, for example. They receive commodities such as public transit tickets as compensation.
The choice of Lahti as the Green Capital was published at the European Commission Website on Friday and was decided in Oslo, the Green Capital for 2019, on Thursday. In 2020 Lisbon, Portugal, is in the role.
Domestically Lahti became the first major city in Finland in 2019 to close down its coal burning facility for electricity and heating. As power sources Lahti uses now only waste wood, biomass and circular material.
Heini Moisio, the communications director of Lahti, told national broadcaster Yle that the town has also excelled in circular economy, water protection and a zoning planning system that involves the general public.
Lahti-based newspaper Etela-Suomen Sanomat wrote in a snap editorial on Friday that Lahti is "not a small actor, but the leading environment town in Finland".
Lahti is the northernmost, easternmost and also the smallest town given the Green Capital title so far, the paper noted. Lahti is known internationally mainly as a winter sports location.
