This archive collects solutions-journalism stories and milestones from Finland — covering health, education, environment, and social policy. Each entry highlights measurable progress or an approach worth knowing about.
A compelling new study from researchers in Finland has compared the physical and cognitive performance of a group of older people in 2017 with a similarly aged group three decades earlier. Improvements were seen in almost every test.
The world’s most robust study of universal basic income has concluded that it boosts recipients’ mental and financial well-being, as well as modestly improving employment.
Finland’s woman-led center-left government plans to give new fathers the same amount of paid time off work as new mothers, nearly doubling paternity leave, it announced on Wednesday.
Finland will go carbon neutral by 2035, under a coalition deal published on Monday, setting one of the world’s earliest timelines for reaching that mark.
Present recycling solutions for EV batteries are not able to recover these scarce metals. To combat this, Fortum has a unique recovery process, involving chemical precipitation methodology that allows these minerals to be recovered and delivered to battery manufacturers to be reused in producing new batteries.
The Finnish Parliament approved a motion last week to bring forward its ban on coal for energy use to May 1, 2029, bringing the country in line with the majority of the European Union in walking away from coal-fired power.
A two-year study in Finland found that people who received UBI worked no less than a control group — bolstering the case for a basic income as the world economy transitions to greater automation.
EU enlargement in 1995 brought Austria, Finland, and Sweden into the union on January 1st, growing membership from 12 to 15 countries. Each nation put the question to its people first, with Austrians backing it most enthusiastically at 66% and Swedes narrowly approving at 52%. A quiet turning point for three longtime neutrals after the Cold War.
Finland’s carbon tax, introduced in January 1990, was the first of its kind anywhere in the world. It started modestly at about €1.12 per tonne of CO₂, more a proof of concept than a heavy lever. Sweden followed the next year, and the idea gradually reshaped how governments think about pricing pollution.
In the spring of 1907, nineteen women walked into Finland’s Eduskunta as elected members — the first female parliamentarians anywhere in recorded history. They were teachers, journalists, and labor organizers, filling roughly 10 percent of the 200 seats. A quiet proof of concept that democracy could include everyone, built on decades of patient groundwork.
