Finland’s Supervisory Agency (LVV) has told the company behind Google’s planned data centres in Muhos and Kajaani to suspend work that would “significantly alter the environment” by 23 October, after more than 300 hectares of forest were cleared, at one site without the mandatory environmental impact assessment. The developer has until 14 October to explain itself, or face enforcement proceedings.
The sites are part of the €13bn investment Google announced less than a month ago, its largest single investment in Europe, and Google says it “fell short” of its own standards and will follow the agency’s guidance. Interesting test of how far Nordic countries will bend environmental rules to win the AI data-centre race.
It’s not about the forest, it’s about breaking Law in Finland not being treated as the cost of doing business.
Either it has to be so costly that it’s not worth it (replanting the trees, losing those licenses or something similar with entirely undoes the benefit of the unlawful actions), the corporate veil that protects them has to be pulled back and the people who ordered this have to spend time in jail or, ideally, both.
If there’s no deterrence from a Law, then it’s functionally the same as that Law not existing, and a nation like that isn’t really one with Rule Of Law.
You would never be jailed in Finland for removing farmed forest. I think you’re going to be very disappointed with the penalty. The EIA will be written explaining the land is a farmed forest and the expected works. In the eyes of the bureaucracy this is going to be a procedural error and the project will likely continue, as there is no grounds to reject it.
If the individuals making the choices come out on the other side better than if they did not chose that way, then they will do the same choices again and again and again as will others who see them get away with it.
At one point in my career I worked in Investment Banking in Britain and it was painfully obvious that the business treated breaking regulations and the fines if caught as just another item in their cost-risk analysis spreadsheets (and it was totally logical for them to do so - apparently Britain is were most of the shenanigans in the time leading to, during and after the 2008 Crash in the World, and nobody ended up in jail and all the big banks got saved and kept paying massive bonuses even during the Austerity period).
So, yeah, if all that Finland does is some fines on the businesses, keeping the individuals making the choices insulated from the consequences and letting the businesses keep the upsides of their crimes, this shit will not just keep on happen but actually happen more and more.
I’d say it’s pretty cut and dry (logging joke) here. If any harsher penalties come in, they will be for everyone after.