Black Carbon Footprint project

The Black Carbon Footprint project aimed to create a uniform metric for the emissions and impacts of climate-warming black carbon (BC) suitable for many fields of science and technology. The intention was to increase the understanding of black carbon emissions, atmospheric concentrations and impacts. The extensive and international research entity, funded by Business Finland and the parties participating in the project, involves eight Finnish research teams from different fields, ten companies, and several public authorities.

Climate change is posing enormous challenges and costs worldwide. One major factor in climate change is atmospheric black carbon, which is present in emissions from transport, small-scale wood burning and industry, among other things. In relation to global warming, atmospheric black carbon has been found to be the most important particulate component in the atmosphere that binds solar radiation energy and thus warms the atmosphere. In addition to the direct climate impact, black carbon also has implications for the reflectivity and melting of snow as well as for human health.

Combating climate change requires limiting not only greenhouse gases, but also climate-warming particulate emissions. However, unlike for greenhouse gases, there is currently no uniform practice for measuring black carbon. The aim is that the measurement practice and concept created in the project could be utilised in the assessment of black carbon emissions and atmospheric concentrations, as well as atmospheric and health impacts. The developed concept is based on existing multidisciplinary data and measurement results complemented by new research carried out by a large consortium in the project. During the project, research measurements on the properties and sources of black carbon were carried out at HSY’s monitoring sites, for example.

The research partners of the project were Tampere University, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finnish Environment Institute, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, and the University of Eastern Finland. The companies and municipal operators involved in the project were Vaisala, Dekati Ltd, Airmodus Ltd, Valmet Technologies, Pegasor Ltd, AX-Consulting, AGCO Power, SSAB, Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority (HSY) and the City of Tampere. The project was funded by Business Finland, the participating companies, HSY and the City of Tampere. Black Carbon Footprint was a three-year joint project that ended in September 2022.

More about the project
More detailed information and results are available on the project’s own website.