Vilja Varho

• D.Sc. (env. science and policy)
• Senior Researcher at Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

In Finland, agriculture is practiced in variable growing conditions that are further challenged by climate change and under external pressure caused by international competition, changing consumer preferences and demands, and the renewal of the European Union Common Agriculture Policy and Paris Agreement climate targets. Futures studies in agricult...

This report describes both the process and outcomes of a transition arena organized around the transition to sustainable food packaging.

Voluntary carbon offsets are a rapidly growing market and claims related to offsetting and carbon neutrality are visible in citizens' daily lives. Proponents suggest that carbon offsetting offers a cost-effective way to incentivize climate action while critics discuss offsetting as an opaque and dysfunctional practice. Previous studies have examine...

Scenarios are often used to depict the possible outcomes of alternative future developments as part of the evaluation of climate and energy policy measures. In Finland, scenarios have become a standard practice in climate-related policy planning. However, scenario planning often results in a single cohesive narrative, which lacks transparency in wh...

At many levels of society—in regions, corporations, and among citizens—awareness is increasing, and actions towards more sustainable energy are being taken. The key drivers of this transition have been climate change, the scarcity of resources, and environmental consciousness. The speed of change and its impacts on the energy system transition are...

Shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs), developed at global scale, comprise narrative descriptions and quantifications of future world developments that are intended for climate change scenario analysis. However, their extension to national and regional scales can be challenging. Here, we present SSP narratives co-developed with stakeholders for the...

This study explored individuals’ engagement in the sustainable energy transition in Finland. Using the attitude-behaviour-context model (Guagnano et al., 1995) and Stern’s (2000) typology of environmentally significant behaviours, this study tested the assumption that individuals’ engagement in transition is a combination of socio-psychological and...

The business opportunities in the Finnish biogas branch were studied through policy document analysis, analysis of the financial performance, and interviews of the biogas companies (in industrial and farm-scales). Although our study focuses on the case of Finland, many identified features of biogas production can be recognized at least on a Europea...

Achieving a sustainable energy transition is crucial for mitigating climate change. Citizens’ acceptance of the transition is important for it to succeed. We explored citizens’ images of the future energy forms and energy system in Finland, and the drivers of a sustainable energy transition. The data gathered with an online questionnaire targeting...

This two-part study explored future environmental professionals’ and citizens’ views of bioeconomy and compared them to the official definitions. Essays written by future environmental professionals (N=47) were analysed using thematic analysis. Four dimensions of the bioeconomy visions were identified: “drivers vs barriers”, “change in technology v...

Finland and the European Union, among others, are promoting bioeconomy as a new form of economy. According to the EU, the bioeconomy comprises those parts of the economy that produce renewable biological resources, such as crops, forests, fish, animals and micro-organisms, or use them to produce food, materials and energy. In order for transition t...

Finland and the European Union, among others, are promoting bioeconomy as a new form of economy. According to the EU, the bioeconomy comprises those parts of the economy that produce renewable biological resources, such as crops, forests, fish, animals and micro-organisms, or use them to produce food, materials and energy. In order for transition t...

We examined how individuals perceive nuclear energy in the context of climate change mitigation and how their perceptions are associated with trust in different risk information sources. We analyzed the interrelationships between trust, perceived risk of nuclear power, climate change concern, perception of nuclear energy as an acceptable way to mit...

The reduction of greenhouse gas emission was the basis of a Delphi study where expert opinions about future development were asked and used to form visions of the future, and further elaborated to scenarios using a pluralistic backcasting method. A new innovative approach on how to use and combine methods and data from various disciplines in scenar...

We examine the possibilities and challenges of the transition to DE in Finland. Technological niches are emerging both in the heat and electricity sector. Business model innovation is evident only in the electricity sector. Removing barriers and developing new business models will accelerate the transition. a b s t r a c t Small-scale distributed e...

Combining together different technologies can form a strong hybrid solution adapted to local needs. Local energy production also increases local business and energy production from local waste reduces waste management costs, thus enabling other local business and employment. Local energy production also increases energy, electricity and fuel securi...

Sustainability assessments and indicators aim to produce and communicate information needed for evidence-based policymaking, strategic planning or learning. It has been assumed that in order to induce the desired effects, indicators must be relevant and reliable and they must be communicated to the right audience in the right way at the right momen...

The article examines media representations and views of experts and high school students on the future of transport with a particular focus on its implications for emissions of greenhouse gases. Focusing on Finland, it explores which key features and boundary conditions related to the climate policies of transport are framed as important or negligi...

The renewable energy market doubled in the Baltic Sea Region between 1999 and 2010. The trends are especially driven by global climate agreements as well as European Union target shares of renewable energy. The purpose of this article is to make future scenarios of the developing renewable energy system in the Baltic Sea Region up to 2025. Five qua...

This study analyses the strengths, weaknesses and pitfalls encountered when combining qualitative and quantitative information in a Delphi process and when reporting the results as scenarios or images of the future. The paper draws material from seven Disaggregative Policy Delphi processes conducted in Finland in 1999–2008, in which the authors wer...

We present a rural Finnish case of nature conservation called the nature values trade (NVT) as an example of the process of changing ecological and cultural states and preferences of environmental policy. We emphasise the importance of local ecological and cultural circumstances for the formulation of environmental policy. The study shows how regio...

Governments around the world are responding to the environmental problems caused by energy production by promoting wind power and other renewable forms of energy. Country specific political and ideological issues affect the choice of policy instruments. For example, although Finland and Sweden are already part of the same Nordic electricity market,...

“Green” electricity, i.e. electricity produced from environmentally less harmful sources and marketed as such, has been available to Finnish households since 1998, but the demand for it has remained low. In this paper we discuss the barriers identified by consumers to purchasing green electricity and contrast these with the interpretation energy se...

In this article we present a method of constructing ‘soft’ scenarios applied to the wind power development in Finland up to the year 2025. We asked 14 experts to describe probable and preferable futures using a quantitative questionnaire and qualitative interviews. Wind power production grows in all scenarios but there were differences in the order...

The environmental impact of photovoltaics (PV) is discussed to ascertain how well it can aid solving the dual problem of meeting the demand for electricity in rural areas and of mitigating the energy-related environmental problems. It is noted that all emissions from PV are indirect and result mainly from the energy used in producing PV equipment....

Climate change is a multi-faceted problem clearly requiring interdisciplinary approach. Transport research focusing on climate policy has been based strongly on engineering approaches, whereas the social scientific knowledge of factors contributing to the emissions and preventing efficient emission reduction policies is scarce and only rarely integ...

Wind power has grown fast internationally. It can reduce the environmental impact of energy production and increase energy security. Finland has turbine industry but wind electricity production has been slow, and nationally set capacity targets have not been met. I explored social factors that have affected the slow development of wind power in Fin...