Medium-term Climate Change Policy Plan

The Medium-term Climate Change Policy Plan is based on the Climate Change Act. The plan is drawn up during each electoral term, and it includes an action programme to reduce emissions in the effort-sharing sector. The plan meets the increasingly stringent EU obligation for 2030 and the Government’s target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035.

Implementation has started

To support the drafting of the plan, a working group composed of the key ministries and the Finnish Climate Change Panel as the scientific expert body was appointed in October 2020.

The draft plan was circulated for comments from 8 December 2021 to 14 January 2022. The feedback from the consultation and research institutes’ assessments of the sufficiency of the plan were taken into account when the plan was finalised.

The Finnish Government submitted a report on the Medium-term Climate Change Policy Plan to Parliament on 2 June 2022. The implementation of the plan is under way. Parliament will give its opinion on the plan in autumn 2022.

The preparation of the Medium-term Climate Change Policy Plan has been coordinated with the processes to prepare the Climate and Energy Strategy and the climate plan for the land use sector. Together, these three plans cover all emissions in Finland and the measures to reduce them. In addition, the Climate Change Act was amended in accordance with the Government Programme. The amendments entered into force on 1 July 2022.

Extensive cooperation to prepare the plan

Openness and hearing people’s views were the key elements in the preparation of the plan. The aim was to produce information and develop solutions in support of a climate policy that is as fair and just as possible.

The views of different stakeholders on the necessary emission reduction measures were collected e.g. from the Citizens’ Jury convened by random sampling, discussions at the Climate Policy Roundtable, events focused on justice and equality, and negotiations with the Sámi Parliament. Citizens’ opinions on the measures included in the plan were collected in early 2021 with an online survey which brought as many as 18,000 responses. 

The project ’Carbon neutral Finland 2035 – measures and impacts of climate and energy policy’ (HIISI), coordinated by the Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT, supported the impact assessments of the plan. The project analysed the impacts of the measures to be included in plan on the different emission sectors, industries, people and the environment.

Materials related to the preparation of the Climate Change Policy Plan are available in the Gateway to Information on Government Projects (in Finnish)

What is the Medium-term Climate Change Policy Plan?

The Medium-term Climate Change Policy plan is based on the Climate Change Act.

The plan is drawn up during each electoral term, and it includes an action programme to reduce emissions in the non-emissions trading sectors, i.e. the effort-sharing sector. This comprises emissions from transport, agriculture, building-specific heating, non-road mobile machinery and waste management, and F-gas emissions.

The implementation of the plan is monitored through the annual climate change reports to Parliament that are based on the Climate Change Act. Now the planning system under the Climate Change Act is implemented side by side with the process to prepare the National Energy and Climate Strategy. The National Energy and Climate Strategies cover the emissions trading, effort sharing and land use sectors.

The first Medium-term Climate Change Policy Plan ‘Towards Climate-Smart Day-to-Day Living’ was completed in 2017. It sets out the measures through which Finland will achieve the target to reduce emissions by 39% by 2030, compared to the levels in 2005. The Medium-term Climate Change Policy Plan further specifies and complements the Energy and Climate Strategy adopted in 2016.

More information

Magnus Cederlöf, Senior Ministerial Adviser 
Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Environmental Protection Department, Climate 0295250060