The foresight report of Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen's second Cabinet reviews the long-term challenges of climate and energy policy from global and national perspectives. In the report, the Government outlines targets and measures marking out the road to a thriving and low-carbon Finland. The time horizon of the report extends until mid-century and beyond as necessary, covering measures both to mitigate climate change and to adapt to its impacts. Besides energy production, the report discusses energy consumption, transport, the forests and others themes central to climate protection. In the report, the Government sets its target to actively contribute towards limiting the rise in the global average temperature to two degrees Celsius at most. For this target to be achieved, all key countries will need to be committed to strict emission limits. As part of international cooperation, Finland is committed to reducing its emissions to a sustainable level - by at least 80 per cent from the 1990 level by 2050. To support the above objective, a shift to a virtually zero-emission energy system and passenger road traffic will take place in the long term. Building a low-carbon society calls for strong and urgent measures at all levels and sectors. Municipalities, enterprises, organisations and private individuals alike are needed in the joint effort to combat climate change. The climate perspective needs to be mainstreamed throughout all decision-making, and current policies and measures need to be strengthened while also adopting new ones. The preparation of the report included comissioning a number studies on climate and energy policy issues as background material. Stakeholder panels and online discussions provided feedback for the preparation. The background scenarios included in the report are also based on a participatory approach.