Reform of the Climate Change Act

A carbon-neutral Finland by 2035 was set as the target in the Programme of Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Government. The Climate Change Act has been reformed to reach the target. The key objective of the new Climate Act is to ensure that Finland will achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 at the latest. 

The new Climate Act (423/2022, in Finnish) entered into force on 1 July 2022. The previous act, the first one in Finland, was adopted in 2015. The new act lays down provisions on climate change policy planning and the related monitoring and sets the national climate objectives. The act also imposes obligations on the authorities. 

New emission reduction targets by 2030 and 2040 are included in the Act and the previous emission reduction target by 2050 is updated. In addition, the scope of the Act is extended to also cover the land use sector, and a target concerning the strengthening of carbon sinks is added. According to the new Climate Change Act, the rights of the Sámi people must be taken into account and negotiations with the Sámi Parliament must be conducted in the processes to prepare climate change policy plans.

Main content of the new Climate Act (PP-presentation, in Finnish)

Frequently asked questions on the new Climate Act (in Finnish)

Gateway to Information on Government Projects

Supplementing the Climate Act

In autumn 2022, the new Climate Act has been supplemented with regulation concerning the climate plans of municipalities and procedures concerning requests for review.

The government gave a legislative proposal to supplement the Climate Act on 20 October 2022 and the Parliament approved the Act on 9 December 2022. The Act is to enter into force on 1 March 2023. The added provisions concern the obligations for municipalities to draw up climate plans and procedures concerning requests for review under the Climate Act.

The draft government proposal was circulated for comments between 8 June and 3 August 2022.  A summary of opinions has been published (7 September 2022, in Finnish). 

Documents related to the preparation (in Finnish) are available at Gateway to Information on Government Projects.

Decrees to be issued under the Climate Act

Two Government decrees are to be issued under the Climate Act in the beginning of 2023. The Decree on the Finnish Climate Change Panel will lay down further provisions e.g. on the composition of the Panel and how the members are selected. The Decree on the Sámi Climate Council will issue more detailed provisions e.g. on the responsibilities, composition and term of the Council.

Follow the process to prepare the Decree on the Finnish Climate Change Panel at the Gateway to Information on Government Projects (in Finnish and Swedish)

Follow the process to prepare the Decree on the Sámi Climate Council at the Gateway to Information on Government Projects (in Finnish and Swedish)

Preparation of the total revision

Working group

In January 2020, the Ministry of the Environment appointed a working group to prepare the reform of the Climate Change Act. This work was completed on 31 March 2021. The working group outlined alternative ways to reform the Climate Change Act. The Ministerial Working Group on Climate and Energy Policy guided the preparation process and provided the main policy outlines concerning the Climate Change Act.

Background studies

Background studies were also commissioned to support the preparation, including:  

Assessments

Assessments have been conducted regarding the impacts of the different regulatory options. Read more about the assessments:

Consultations

The process to prepare the reform started with extensive consultations in autumn 2019. In these, a particular focus was on children and young people and the Sámi people. Children and young people were selected as a target group because they are the ones that will face the impacts of climate change the most strongly in the long term. The Sámi culture, in turn, is particularly vulnerable to climate warming. 

Among the events organised in 2019 were a roundtable discussion between ministers and young people and the ‘Children take over the Government’ event, where the key theme was climate change mitigation through legislative means. Besides these consultations, towards the end of 2019 the Ministry of the Environment conducted small-scale social media surveys on the reform of the Climate Change Act, and a more extensive online survey that brought about 2,500 responses.

In spring 2020, four consultation events were organised for the relevant stakeholders, specifically targeted at the agricultural and land use sector, business life, municipalities and regions, and legal scientists. In addition, during the same year several public events related to the reform of the Climate Change Act were held in different parts of Finland. 

In October-November 2020 the Ministry of the Environment organised an online consultation together with the ‘Tackling Biases and Bubbles in Participation (BIBU)’ research project. The participants were asked to tell their views on civic participation, social justice, access to information and the rights of the indigenous Sámi people in the Climate Change Act.

Circulation for comments and amendments to the proposal

The draft government proposal was circulated for comments from 2 July to 6 September 2021. A total of 448 opinions came in, and the government proposal was modified on the basis of the feedback.

The updated proposal was discussed in the Ministerial Working Group on Climate and Energy Policy on 17 November. The Working Group guides the preparation process and draws up the key policy outlines for the Climate Change Act. 

The proposal was also amended on the basis of the opinion issued by the Finnish Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis on 4 February 2022. The Government approved the legislative proposal on 3 March 2022.

The government proposal was submitted to Parliament on 3 March 2022.  More information on the consideration of the proposal in Parliament is available on the website of the Finnish Parliament (in Finnish). 

More information

Karin Cederlöf, Senior Specialist, Legal Affairs 
Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Environmental Protection Department, Climate 0295250010