Do Ambitious Goals Call for Stringent Policy? The Stringency, Target Sectors, and Measures of Finland's Climate and Energy Policy in Response to <scp>EU</scp> Greenhouse Gas Emission Targets

ABSTRACT This article examines how the climate and energy policy in Finland changed between the two parliamentary terms of 2015–2019 and 2019–2023, when the EU tightened its greenhouse gas emission targets. We analyze the relevant policy measures ( N = 223) of five government strategic plans and evaluate their stringency, i.e., their compulsory and determinative nature, using four criteria identified from the literature. We also analyze the type of measures used and the sectors of society at which they were targeted. Our study developed a policy stringency assessment method on the basis of the literature to obtain numerical stringency figures. This enabled us to conduct a comparative analysis of the parliamentary terms' policy stringency and of, for example, the emissions trading sector's and the non‐emissions trading sector's measures. For politicians and civil servants, understanding the policy's characteristics and individual measures, such as the development of their stringency, is key to analyzing and improving the effectiveness of the policy, which is essential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The results of our case study show that as the EU's targets have become stricter, Finland's national policy has become more stringent/compulsory, especially in the non‐emissions trading sector. The results also show that the majority of and the most stringent policy measures are directed at the private sector, whereas the less stringent measures target citizens. At the end of this article, we briefly discuss the possible reasons, based on the literature, for the way in which the climate and energy policy has developed in Finland and make some suggestions for further research.