As part of an EU-funded project, the Finnish city of Lahti has developed the world’s first public carbon-trading scheme and digital application for its residents. The app, for smartphones and mobile devices, will allow people to earn credits by using environmentally friendly forms of transport. The credits can then be exchanged via the application’s virtual marketplace for discounts on services and products.
- 29 July 2020
If we want people to change their behaviour, we need to make it possible. In CitiCAP, we enable this by building bicycle infrastructure and developing and piloting the personal carbon trading model.
Located in southern Finland, Lahti has bounced back from many environmental challenges faced in the 1970s and 1990s. Following in the footsteps of previous environmental initiatives, the CitiCAP project is tackling the mobility emission sector, where people’s behaviour has been harder to change.
Alongside its innovative carbon trading scheme and a sustainable urban mobility plan for the city, the project will build a 2.5 km-long highway for bicycles that will separate cyclists from other traffic. The safe and convenient cycle route will serve as a model for others planned across the city.
Personal carbon budgets
In practice, personal carbon trading allows people to benefit from reducing their carbon emissions. Each user receives a weekly carbon budget. If they do not consume their budget, by using sustainable travel choices, such as taking the bus or cycling, they earn credits for what they have not used. These can be exchanged via the app for discounts on consumer services, products or city services.
It is hoped the system will motivate the city’s 120 000 residents to use greener modes of transport by getting them involved in climate change mitigation in a new and innovative way. The ultimate goal is to reduce pollution and Lahti’s impact on global CO2 emissions.
Data collection
The app allows users to track their carbon footprint in real time and visualise it in an easily understandable way. It will collect data on the time and distance users spend on each travel mode. Plenty of data on mobility is currently available, but it is scattered across various sources, such as mobile phones, and is often not accessible to the public.
The data generated will be analysed and the lessons learnt will be used in Lahti’s sustainable urban mobility planning. The results could be of interest to other medium-sized cities in Finland and abroad, and could encourage companies to develop new services.
Citizen involvement
Designing a carbon trading scheme would be pointless, however, if the public did not use it. CitiCAP realises it is important to engage Lahti’s citizens to download and use the application. If a sufficient volume is not met, trading would be difficult and the pilot scheme would develop too slowly in the project’s lifetime.
To overcome this, the project has organised a range of events and asked people to complete questionnaires. In one case, citizens were asked what they thought would be a fair way of allocating the carbon credits. A method was decided on based upon the results.
The system is being piloted until the end of 2020. The target is to get between 1 300 and 2 000 people using the app in this period.
Funding for the project is provided by the ERDF and Urban Innovative Actions, a European Union initiative that gives cities resources to implement innovative projects.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “CitiCAP (Citizens’ cap and trade co-created)” is EUR 4 700 000, with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 3 700 000 through the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative” for the 2014-2020 programming period.