Climate change adaptation

The climate is changing despite mitigation efforts. There is no way to fully prevent the change. The impacts of climate change are already felt in Finland, and in the future, the impacts will be even stronger. In Finland, climate change means rising temperatures, increased precipitation and shorter periods of snow cover and ground frost. Extreme weather events will change as well. Therefore, we must adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change. 

Adaptation is part of Finland’s climate policy

According to the Climate Act adopted in 2022, the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan is part of the climate policy planning system. According to the Act, adaptation refers to actions that are taken to prepare for and adapt to climate change and its impacts, and measures that can be used to benefit from the impacts associated with climate change. 

• Climate Act 2022 (Translation from Finnish; Legally binding only in Finnish and Swedish)

The responsibility for the national coordination of climate change adaptation work rests with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Adaptation is, however, relevant to all ministries and administrative branches due to the diversity and broad scale of the consequences of climate change. The key premise of Finland’s adaptation policy has been for long that adaptation is integrated into the normal planning and activities of administrative branches and different sectors. In addition, cooperation between the public, private and third sector organisations is constantly     developed.

• Action Plan for the Adaptation to Climate Change of the Environmental Administration 2022 (in Finnish with English abstract) 
• Climate change in the healthcare and social welfare sector : Climate change adaptation plan of Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (2021–2031) 
• Ministry of Finance - Strategy on Climate and Nature 
• The plan for climate change adaptation of Finnish defence administration (In Finnish) 

Finland’s adaptation policy

In Finland, national level policy actions to promote adaptation have been taken since the beginning of the 21st century. Since the beginning of 2023, national level adaptation work has been steered by the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan 2023.

More information on adaptation

More information on climate change and adaptation in Finland is available on:

• Climateguide.fi 

Subscribe to newsletter

The newsletter published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry brings updates on adaptation directly to your email. The newsletter is compiled by representatives of the member organisations of the monitoring group for climate change adaptation. The newsletter is planned to come out four times a year. The newsletter is published in Finnish.

Subscribe to the ‘Ilmastonmuutos haltuun’ climate change newsletter here.