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Climate change in Sweden

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The issue of climate change in Sweden has received significant public and political attention and the mitigation of its effects has been high on the agenda of the three latest Governments of Sweden, the former Cabinet of Göran Persson (-2006), the previous Cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt (2006-2014) and the current Löfven cabinet(2014-). Sweden aims for an energy supply system with zero net atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.[1]

Emissions

According to the Germanwatch Climate Change Performance Index 2010 Sweden ranked as the second best country after Brazil in addressing greenhouse gas emissions and policy formulation.[2] Sweden has also been ranked first in both the 2014 and 2016 editions of the Global Green Economy Index (GGEI) where Sweden performs well overall and within the topic of climate change performance where it is one of the top developed countries due to the relatively low emissions intensity of the Swedish economy.[3]

For the total carbon dioxide emissions in 2009 (without other greenhouse gases or land use) Sweden ranked 87th to 83rd top out of 216 countries: 50.56 tonnes (t) below Libya 55.0 t, Serbia 52.3 t and Finland 52.15 t. For the per capita carbon dioxide emissions in 2009 Sweden ranked 82nd to 83rd top out of 216 countries having the same emissions as Ukraine 5.58 tonnes per capita (t/capita). This was only slightly below the carbon dioxide emissions per capita in China 5.83 t/capita (with 80th top position).[4]

In 2000, Sweden ranked seventy sixth out of 185 countries for the per capita greenhouse gas emissions when taking any land use changes into account. Without considering land use changes the country ranked at fifty eighth.[5]

2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference

At the 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) demanded:[6]

  1. Swedish government should confirm the given election promises of 40 % emission decline by 2020
  2. International 5-years goals
  3. Binding for every country
  4. SEK4 billion Kr Swedish green fund for 2015–2018
  5. Actively aim concrete agreement text already in Lima 2014

181 students took initiative to work in 2015 for two weeks to improve Swedish climate change carbon footprint in relation to green food, solar energy, bicycles, customs, consumption and wastes.[7]

EU renewable targets

Sweden met its EU member-agreed binding renewable 2020 target in 2012.[8]

External costs

Winter storms Gudrun in 2005 and Per in 2007 in southern Sweden overthrew huge volumes of forest and caused power cuts.[9] Storm Per on 14 January 2007 affected 440,000 electricity users and Gudrun 620,000 customers. The reallocation of capital due to power disruptions during and after storm Per was estimated to be between SEK 1 800 and 3 400 million. The network operators cost was ca SEK 1 400 million, of which SEK 750 million compensation for affected customers. The costs for electricity consumers was estimated to SEK 180–1 800 million.[10]

Policy

Sweden has applied policy instruments and measures for climate change mitigation since the 1980s.[11] The instruments used include economic instruments (such as CO2 tax, subsidies, penalties), legislation, voluntary agreements and a dialogue between the state and business enterprise. The main instruments are described below:

Carbon dioxide tax instrument

In Sweden, there are so far three different taxes levied on energy products (mainly fossil fuels), namely energy tax, sulphur tax and CO2 tax. Energy taxation has been used as a policy instrument ever since the oil crisis of the 1970s to support renewable energy and nuclear power. Energy tax was reduced by half in 1991 during the tax reform, simultaneously with the introduction of a CO2 tax on fossil fuels, with exceptions on ethanol, methanol, other biofuels, peat and wastes.

Renewable energy certificate system

As one part of the Government’s long-term energy policy to reduce GHG emissions, the Swedish government introduced a voluntary international system for trading “green certificates”, i.e. the renewable energy certificate system (RECS). With effect from 1 May 2003, RECS intends to encourage and increase the proportion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources. This will be done by payment of a levy in proportion to certain fraction of their electricity during the year. For example, during the first year (2003), users will be required to buy 7.4 per cent of the electricity generated from renewable sources

Renewable energy subsidies and continuous investment on R&D

Since 1991, Sweden started many programs to encourage the use of renewable energy and new technology development, e.g. Energy Policy program (Long and short term programs that focus on ways to increase the supply of renewable electricity, to reduce electricity consumption, and to promote energy efficiency), Green Certificate Scheme (Generators using solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, wave or small hydro are awarded one certificate for each MWh produced, and all consumers are obliged to buy enough certificates to cover a set proportion of their use).

International collaboration and carbon trading systems

Sweden also shows its leadership in international cooperation and competence on the climate change issues. Sweden actively took part in some international climate policy programs, such as Prototype Carbon Funds (PCF) and Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ)

Public participations

Public participation is quite important in addressing climate change and its effects and developing adequate responses. Without the support of the public, it is impossible to implement a new policy instrument successfully. For example, one cannot anticipate that bio ethanol and bio diesel could be widely consumed without support and understanding from the general population. Therefore, information to raise the level of knowledge concerning the climate issue to the public is necessary.

Oil phase-out in Sweden

Main article: Making Sweden an Oil-Free Society

The government created a Commission on Oil Independence (Kommissionen för att bryta oljeberoendet i Sverige till år 2020) and in 2006 it proposed the following targets for 2020:

  • Consumption of oil in road transport to be reduced by 40-50 per cent;
  • Consumption of oil in industry to be cut by 25-40 per cent;
  • Heating buildings with oil, a practice already cut by 70% since the 1973 oil crisis, should be phased out;
  • Overall, energy should be used 20% more efficiently

Public perception

A 2002 survey showed that over 95% of respondents said that the use of tax money for addressing climate change was either "Very important" or "Fairly important". A little over half of the respondents were willing to change the use of hot water, electricity consumption and travel arrangement in order to reduce the impact of climate change. A little under half did not want to decrease internal building temperatures as a means of reducing climate change impact.[12] A201

See also

References

  1. ^ Renewables 2014 Global Status Report, page 29
  2. ^ Burck, Jan; Christoph Bals; Verena Rossow (December 2009). Climate Change Performance Index 2010. Germanwatch. ISBN 978-3-939846-57-4. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
  3. ^ Tamanini, Jeremy; Dual Citizen LLC (September 2016). Global Green Economy Index 2016. Dual Citizen LLC.
  4. ^ World carbon dioxide emissions data by country: China speeds ahead of the rest Guardian 31 January 2011
  5. ^ "WRI Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (registration required to access data)".
  6. ^ Dags för Sverige att visa ledarskap för klimatet 1 December 2014
  7. ^ Berghs hjälper Naturskyddsföreningen att klimatmaxa Dags för Sverige att visa ledarskap för klimatet The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation 4 December 2014
  8. ^ Renewables 2014 Global Status Report, page 102
  9. ^ Stormen Per – två år efter Gudrun
  10. ^ Storm Per 2007
  11. ^ "Sweden in the forefront for a green society".
  12. ^ Boman, Mattias; Leif Mattsson (2008). "A note on attitudes and knowledge concerning environmental issues in Sweden". Journal of Environmental Management. 86 (3). Elsevier: 575–579. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2006.12.041.
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