Ten-year-old Climateguide.fi updates its user interface

“The Climateguide.fi is intended as a source of information for all who are interested in climate questions. The most frequent users of the service are teachers, students, and people working in administrative positions and in companies”, says Mikael Hildén, Director of the Climate Change Programme at the Finnish Environment Institute.

The user interface of the Climateguide.fi has been upgraded, the visual appearance has been thoroughly refreshed, and accessibility to the site has been improved. The changes mean that users can find researched information on climate change more easily than before. In addition, the upgrade creates a foundation for updating and renewing the content and for future expansion of the service. The service gives different user groups easy access to well-founded and researched information.

All those who are involved in maintaining the service are committed to developing the Climateguide.fi in the future as well.

Climate change information through a single address

Climate change is currently discussed everywhere, but the information is often scattered in many different places. Climateguide.fi is a wonderful place to start looking for information: the site offers information on climate change at one address and leads the reader to other reliable sources of information.

“The Climateguide.fi collects researched information into a form that is easily absorbed. Therefore, the information can therefore be utilised efficiently”, says Ministerial Adviser Kirsi Mäkinen at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry who works with climate change adaptation policy.

The service also offers practical tips and instructions on how everyone can do something to mitigate climate change. The service also includes maps, graphs, and tools for visualising climate change and its impacts. Some of the content is in Swedish and English.

“It is important for researched information to be available in domestic languages so that schoolchildren, students, and citizens can learn about research-based climate information”, says Heikki Tuomenvirta, Head of Group at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. “For example, the service offers the possibility to monitor what kinds of decisions related to climate change are being made in the user's own municipality, and if the decisions are in line with information borne out by research.”

Constant need for reliable climate change information

The content of the Climateguide.fi is produced by researchers. The diverse content is edited together with the editors of the website to be easy to understand.

The Climateguide.fi has information about climate change as a phenomenon, Finland's changing climate, the mitigation of climate change, its impacts, and adapting to it.

“The Climateguide.fi includes information on how consumers, private citizens, municipalities, or the business world can reduce their emissions”, says Raisa Mäkipää, Research Professor at the Natural Resources Institute Finland. “Diverse information on climate change is also important because it enables the planning of actions required for adaptation.”

“Information and solutions compiled in the Climateguide.fi are urgently required to mitigate climate change, and to support adapting and preparing for it”, Mäkinen says.

The Climateguide.fi can be used to support decision-making, for example. “Without researched information it is difficult to make rational decisions. If the goal is to fight climate change, for example, we need to know how to get there and what the most effective and cost-effective means to that end are”, Mäkipää ponders.

For example, the work done at ministries is often based on information produced by research institutes. “In my own work, researched information is constantly in use. Most recently, I have made use of graphics in the Climateguide.fi that summarize the IPCC report”, Mäkinen says.

Further information:

Heikki Tuomenvirta, Head of Group, Finnish Meteorological Institute, tel. +358 50 574 6824, firstname.lastname@fmi.fi

Mikael Hildén, Director of the Climate Change Programme, Finnish Environment Institute, tel. +358 295 251 173, firstname.lastname@syke.fi

Elina Virkkunen, Researcher, Natural Resources Institute Finland, tel. +358 295326642, firstname.lastname@luke.fi