NordSIP (Stockholm) – Just before Christmas, on 21 December, the Swedish government presented the country’s new climate action plan. Eagerly anticipated, the plan has taken some time to agree upon. “The four parties behind this plan have differences among themselves,” admitted prime minister Ulf Kristersson at the press conference (in Swedish). “But we have a common stance in Swedish climate policy, whereas the opposition is divided even on fundamental policy issues.”
Given the timing of the announcement, the plan is yet to be properly dissected by all parties concerned in order to assess its implications. To get started, NordSIP brings you some of the highlights.
A plan for pragmatics
According to Kristersson, there are two main principles underlying the government’s climate work going forward. The first is that Sweden must be able to reduce emissions while ensuring the competitiveness of the Swedish economy and growing prosperity. The second principle is that the transition must be conducted in a socially sustainable manner, taking people’s jobs and economy into consideration. This pragmatic approach means the climate policy must be rooted in science and aspire to gain popular support. The plan envisions that the Swedish transition will mainly take place by means of increased electrification through nuclear power.
Another essential feature of the new plan, according to the Prime Minister, is that it is much more closely aligned with the EU’s common policy. In that respect, the government has followed the recommendations issued earlier this year by the appointed investigator, John Hassler. “National symbolic policies are being replaced by those that have a real long-term effect on reducing emissions,” said Kristersson.
Measures galore
The action plan contains a total of seventy proposed measures, fifty of which, according to the government, are completely new. To mention but a few, measures are proposed to ensure access to charging infrastructure, new support for light electric trucks, increased incentives to scrap fossil fuel vehicles and new investments in climate change mitigation. During the press conference, Sweden’s Minister for Climate and Environment, Romina Pourmokhtari, highlighted, among others, the proposals for tax benefits for charging stations at workplaces and a new analysis of how the expansion of fast chargers can be scaled up. She also introduced the idea of a distance-based system for taxing heavy vehicles, designed to be as competitively neutral as possible and include foreign vehicles.
The Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Ebba Busch, discussed new proposals to increase the country’s self-sufficiency of minerals and metals important for the green transition. She also mentioned that Sweden should push the EU to reduce the regulatory burden for companies working on the climate transition and strive for increased investment in technological advances such as carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The highly controversial topic of the fossil fuel reduction obligation, a climate measure favoured by the former government, garnered some attention. “There is a big difference between having a plan for certain short-term emission reductions and transitioning to a completely fossil-free economy that reaches net-zero emissions,” Pourmokhtari pointed out. “The previous climate policy put all eggs in one basket.” According to her, relying on a single policy instrument, such as the reduction obligation, would be unrealistic.
Is it enough?
Despite timing the announcement ahead of the prolonged holiday, the government did not avoid a flurry of criticism. As expected, the opposition parties, particularly the Green Party, have been vocal about their disapproval of the new climate action plan. “They [the government] are quite deliberately pushing responsibility into the future,” comments Daniel Helldén, the party’s joint leader. “Those who are going to have to deal with the consequences are ordinary Swedes and our businesses.” Meanwhile, Rickard Nordin, the Centre Party’s energy policy spokesperson, calls the plan “irresponsible and unacceptable”.
A recommended reading for those interested in a more systematic and factual analysis of Sweden’s current climate policy is the EU Commission’s assessment and recommendations, published just days before the final version was presented on 18 December. Hopefully, the government had a chance to peruse the document, which contains several critical comments, before announcing the new climate action plan. Especially given their ambition of closer alignment with the EU’s common policy.
