Memorandum

This conversation opener departs from the premise that mitigating and adapting to climate change are imperative from the perspective of global and intergenerational justice. Finland is bound by the Paris climate agreement and by EU climate policy. Finland must manage its share of the common target, and a national carbon neutrality goal will be added to Finnish climate legislation. This working paper uses the conceptualisation of three dimensions of justice and augments it with cross-cutting levels of justice and the human rights perspective. The working paper also discusses what can be considered just and how justice can be viewed from a legal perspective. It produces background information on the concept of justice for evaluating Finnish climate policy, while also considering the cascading effects of Finnish climate policy measures and global supply chains. Based on academic research literature, we examine what considering justice means in the context of climate policy. We will map the general principles of justice and the preconditions that basic and human rights place on climate policy. The working paper aims to be a conversation opener regarding the different dimensions of justice and how deliberating and evaluating these dimensions could be intertwined more tightly as part of climate policy decision-making. This examination of the different dimensions of justice will be worked towards an evaluation framework in sector-specific stakeholder workshops. The aim of the Finnish Climate Change Panel’s project Climate Policy Justice is to produce questions to facilitate evaluating climate policy justice for decision-making.