I got a reply from the public relations office of the University of Turku:
Dear Kevin Bleakley,
and I apologize that you have not got answer before. I tried to find your previous message but I can’t find it. But here are the answers:
1) Are these two individuals still current salaried staff of the University of Turku?
Jyrki Kauppinen is an emeritus professor so he has been retired and does not get salary. Pekka Malmi works as a University Lecturer at the Department of Physics and Astronomy and gets salary from that position.
2) Does the University of Turku have any position on this preprint?
University has no position on this preprint. After the article was published University gave following announcement: UniTurku agrees with the prevailing conceptions of the scientific world on the effect of human activity on climate change. The article is not peer-reviewed, and it is not yet a finished scientific publication. One of the underlying principles of science is to subject all concepts to critical examination.
3) Do either or both of the authors receive funding from sources that might influence them in trying to publish this kind of misleading pseudo-science? For instance, do either of them receive funding from the fossil fuel industry?
Unfortunately I can not answer this question right away, but I’ll try to find out (during this summer holiday season it can take a while to find out weather university has that answer or not). You may also ask this direct from themselves. Jyrki Kauppinen has en email-address [[redacted]] (in our university emeritus professors can still use university-email if they want) and Pekka Malmi has an email [[redacted]].
With best regards,
[[Redacted]]
I got an additional reply two days later:
Dear Kevin,
now I got answer from Research Funding Support at the University of Finland. They told me, that either Jyrki Kauppinen or Pekka Malmi does not work as a responsible leader to any research project that gets additional funding outside the university.
The person who answered me is not the one who is working for the Department of Physics and Astronomy, that person will come to work next Monday. If she has any additional information, we will let you know.
With best regards,
[[Redacted]]
So they seem to be saying that there are no suspicious funding sources in play. But it’s not terribly clear. Next step is to email the authors themselves. Stay tuned!