Around forty percent of the world's population already lives in a way that keeps their carbon footprint close to or in line with sufficiency. A University of Helsinki study suggests that climate policy could learn from their way of life, and that policy tools should be tailored to different income groups.
Tina Nyfors, who recently defended her doctoral thesis at the University of Helsinki, studied sufficiency, a way of living and a principle for organising society in order to stay within the environmental limits, while also ensuring that people have enough. Nyfors directs attention to people whose carbon footprint is already in line with sufficiency and refer to them as the sufficiency class. Their way of life has moderate climate impact yet still meets their needs.
"I think that a particularly interesting finding relates to bringing attention to the people already living within or close to the limits of sufficiency. This shows that sufficiency is not only about reduction, but that some people are already there. The participants in my study had carbon footprints already considerably smaller than the average carbon footprint of a Finnish person," says Nyfors.
In the study, sufficiency means staying below the upper limit nature can handle, but above the limit people need for a decent life. The idea sits between two boundaries, the "sufficiency corridor". Above the upper boundary, people consume too much, the overconsuming class. Below the lower boundary, people do not have enough. This is what previous literature refers to as the struggling class. Within the corridor are people in the sufficiency class.
So, sufficiency has two limits, but according to the study, the Finnish climate policy debate mostly focuses on only one of them. There, justice mostly means making sure that no one's standard of living falls below a minimum level. The upper environmental limit received only little attention.
From sufficiency to concrete policy tools
The study asks how sufficiency could be implemented in society, to address climate change. To find the answers, Nyfors studied two different ways of moving society toward sufficiency. The first is climate policy, made by governments and international bodies. The second is environmental movements, using the Finnish sufficiency movement Kohtuusliike as a case study.
Sufficiency can be translated into climate policy-tools by tailoring policy to different income groups. For the overconsuming and the ultra-rich, the suggested tools steer consumption away from carbon-intensive choices, such as flying, heavy private car use, and eating a lot of meat, toward low-carbon options, such as public transport, biking, walking, and a more vegetarian or vegan diet. For the poor, policy should ensure basic needs are met. And for the sufficiency class, policy is suggested to support their sustainable choices.
There are, however, challenges in acceptability of sufficiency policies that address overconsumption. Here, environmental movements can play an important role in increasing support from the bottom-up. According to the study, environmental movements like Kohtuusliike can support climate policy in three ways: by offering new insights for policy tools, by challenging and providing alternatives to cultural norms and the pursuit of constant economic growth, and by bringing attention to people who already live within the limits of sufficiency.
In the study of Kohtuusliike, Nyfors found four different ways of understanding sufficiency. Some see it as a pair of "sufficiency glasses", a way of looking at the world that helps them notice what should change and what is already in line with sufficiency. Others describe sufficiency as freedom from consumption addictions, rather than giving things up. Some see sufficiency as something that cannot be avoided. Others point out that putting sufficiency into practice sometimes requires compromise, at least in contemporary Finnish society.
A warming climate today, unanswered questions tomorrow
"News on heat records, droughts and wildfires have been common topics this summer. Yet, climate emissions keep rising, and sufficiency is currently largely lacking in climate policy," Nyfors says.
The study focuses mainly on sufficiency as a lifestyle and as a way of organising society, while paying less attention to production. Nyfors suggests that future research should look more closely at the sufficiency class, and at how policymakers and environmental movements could interact more deeply in bringing about sufficiency-oriented change in society.
Tina Nyfors defended the doctoral dissertation entitled "Within the limits of sufficiency: Climate policy and environmental movement approaches to addressing climate change" in the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, on 24 August 2026. Chair Sylvia Lorek, Sustainable Europe Research Institute Germany (SERI), served as the opponent, and Annukka Vainio as the custos. The dissertation is also available in electronic form in .
