Sustainability briefing: Finland's ETS stance, COP31 buildings target, textile reuse and SCI in OpenTelemetry
Today's briefing spans policy and technical standard-setting alike: Finland has largely endorsed Brussels' ETS reform plans and rolled out a new model for nature-related decision-making across state bodies, while COP31 organisers float a building energy-intensity target ahead of November's Antalya summit. Elsewhere, a textile-reuse study questions the economics of garment repair under incoming EU waste rules, and software developers work towards a common way to record carbon-intensity data in OpenTelemetry.
Finland's government mostly backs the Commission's proposal to reform EU emissions trading
On 1 October 2026 the Finnish Government sent Parliament a Union communication on the Commission's proposal to reform the Emissions Trading Directive. It says it supports the proposal for the most part. The Ministry of the Environment's summary does not list the points of disagreement.
COP31 presidency proposes a 25% cut in building energy intensity by 2035
A COP31 Presidency concept note proposes a global target to cut building energy intensity by at least 25% by 2035, against a 2025 baseline. A ministerial meeting at the Antalya summit (9–20 November) is expected to consider the 'Antalya Compact for Climate-Positive Buildings', which would carry the target. The note frames building energy codes and standards as possible areas for implementation.
Finland publishes a model for managing nature work across state administration
On 22 September 2026 Finnish ministries, the Prime Minister's Office, Motiva and the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) presented a model for managing biodiversity work in state organisations. It covers decision-making, budgeting, procurement and impact assessment. It came out of the EU-funded Priodiversity LIFE project, which has €50 million in funding and is described as Finland's largest project against nature loss.
Most used garments are still reusable, but repair costs often outweigh resale value, textile-reuse report finds
A May 2026 report from Fashion for Good and Circle Economy analysed 8,280 garments at sorting facilities in four EU countries. It found 37% undamaged and 41% with only minor flaws. Repair, cleaning and restoration often cost more than the resale value, and the report recommends lower taxes on repair and second-hand goods. EU rules ban destruction of unsold textiles and footwear for large firms from 19 July 2026, and for medium-sized firms from 19 July 2030.
Green Software Foundation assembly works on a shared way to record SCI in OpenTelemetry
A Green Software Foundation assembly, running from 23 July to 30 October 2026, is defining how the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) formula components are expressed in OpenTelemetry's semantic conventions. Planned outputs are a proposed attribute registry, agreed metric definitions and an event convention for recording full SCI calculations. The aim is to stop each team inventing its own names and data models for carbon metrics.