Response to interpellation 2023/24:167 on reduced climate impact from Swedish consumption
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns reduced climate impact from Swedish consumption. L believes that Sweden has a strength in parliamentary environmental work and emphasizes the importance of green innovation and export of goods with low climate impact. L argues that companies must have circular business models 1 and that the government is investing more money in the climate than before to produce clean goods and services 2 3. L also argues that the government is expanding the electricity system with wind and nuclear power 2. MP argues that consumption emissions are a large part of the total emissions 4 5 and that the government lacks a plan for net-zero emissions for consumption in 2045 5. MP argues that the government is dismantling climate measures by reducing support for Svanen, removing the plastic bag tax, and raising the VAT on repairs 6. MP also argues that the government has removed national support for sustainable community building projects and that they have not taken sufficient action to broadly support the green industrial transformation 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam President! Katarina Luhr has asked me how I view the Environmental Goals Council's proposal on policy instruments and measures to reduce climate emissions from consumption and what measures I and the government intend to take to reduce Sweden's consumption emissions.
The Environmental Goals Preparatory Body has been part of Swedish politics for a long time by this point. Many previous proposals from the preparatory body have come to become self-evident parts of Sweden's environmental and climate policy. I think it is a strength for Sweden that we can conduct serious and broadly anchored parliamentary work in the environmental and climate area.
The Environmental Goals Commission submitted its partial report, Sweden's global climate footprint, to the government in April 2022. The Environmental Goals Commission proposes goals for the climate benefit of exports and the climate impact of consumption. The Commission also proposes goals to reduce emissions from international aviation and shipping, as well as measures for our common public sector to lead in climate work in various ways.
In order to obtain a better picture of Sweden's global climate footprint, the government has tasked Statistics Sweden with proposing a method to monitor statistics on the export's effect on global emissions, based on the proposals presented by the Environmental Goals Commission.
It is a strength that all eight parties agree in stating that the climate issue is global. That the climate issue requires global answers is a starting point that I assess is even more important for this government than for the previous one. Therefore, the government continues to work on reducing global emissions in several different ways.
Firstly, it is important for this government to contribute to the global emission reductions through the export of both green innovation and goods produced with lower climate impact than in the rest of the world or that are even completely climate-neutral. Sweden and the EU can show the rest of the world that it is possible to inspire the use of fossil-free technology in other countries by showing that it is possible to carry out the climate transition in a growing economy.
It is also through international cooperation, knowledge exchange, and free trade that we can achieve a successful transition. The Government published a new foreign trade strategy on 20 November 2023, where a green and digital transition is one of the three most important priorities. The climate transition shall become a profitable export product, and the Government's ambition is that the Swedish export's contribution to global climate benefit shall increase. Among other things, this means that Sweden's export and investment council, Business Sweden, will be tasked with strengthening Swedish companies' contribution to global climate benefit and development in low- and middle-income countries.
The EU is a central actor both in terms of influencing emissions within the union and in driving the rest of the world, but without commitment from the largest emitting countries—USA, China, India, and Brazil—we will not manage to meet the global challenge we face. International climate policy also needs to be developed. All countries need to reach all the way to zero. Climate aid and climate investments need to be strengthened and made more efficient at both the Swedish and European levels. Climate aid needs to be targeted at creating conditions for a transition in growth so that it does not happen to be set aside in favor of the opposite. In this way, the government can contribute to reducing the climate impact from consumption in an effective manner.
In conclusion, the government is working in several different ways to reduce global emissions and contribute to reducing Sweden's global climate footprint in an effective way. This is an important part of the work with the restructuring of the climate policy that we will develop during the mandate period.
Katarina Luhr (MP)
Madam President! I thank the Minister for the Environment and Climate for the answer.
We are in the midst of a climate emergency. The year 2023 will likely become the world's warmest year, according to what has been measured so far. With the measures currently in place, we are heading towards a warming of 2.5-3 degrees, which will make parts of the earth uninhabitable.
To stay within the framework of the Paris Agreement, we can afford a global average climate emission of approximately 1 ton per person per year. I live in the city of Stockholm, just like almost 1 million other people. If one were to place a beehive over the city of Stockholm and then examine how much greenhouse gases are emitted under the cover, it is approximately 1.5 tons of greenhouse gases per person every year. Most comes from traffic and exhaust pipes, but a measurable part also comes from heating and electricity.
The plan is for climate emissions in Stockholm to be down to zero by the year 2040. It is one of Stockholm's own climate goals. It is hard work to push down local emissions, but at the same time, it is easier to influence emissions that one has own control over than climate emissions that occur in a completely different place.
It is important that we do this work, because there is a climate work that is even harder: the work to reduce our consumption emissions. That is what I want to debate today.
We also use a lot of things that are not manufactured within our own beehive, regardless of whether it concerns Stockholm, Skellefteå, or Sweden as a whole. It produces emissions somewhere else entirely. Perhaps I buy solar cells for my roof that were manufactured using coal power in China. Perhaps a house is being built from cement from Germany on my neighbor's plot. Maybe my jeans are manufactured in Turkey, or maybe I decide to take a flight out through the beehive for a vacation in Spain.
The emissions that do not originate within Stockholm's own beehive are not included in the 1.5 tons that I, as a Stockholmer, emit. These emissions, the consumption emissions, which are not entirely simple to calculate, instead amount to around 7-8 tons on average for an average Stockholmer – less for some and much more for others. More than half of these emissions are also made outside the Swedish border. To reduce these emissions, substantial efforts and a whole bouquet of measures are required.
As most understand, there is a great need for activity in this area since consumption emissions today account for the larger part of the emissions that we Swedes generate. In 2022, a unanimous environmental goals preparation therefore stood behind a new national goal to reduce consumption emissions. The investigation also submitted a report of 850 pages with, among other things, proposals on how one can work to reduce these emissions.
The Environmental Goals Commission states that the responsibility for reducing consumption emissions rests with a number of different actors. For the part of the emissions that occur through private consumption - which otherwise account for approximately two-thirds of the total consumption emissions - it is very important to create incentives to facilitate and create conditions for the consumer to reduce their climate footprint.
The Environmental Goals Preparation Group highlights measures such as information, for example, different forms of labeling on products and services and a supporting transport infrastructure, but also economic instruments and regulations such as product requirements. It also proposes the introduction of instruments and measures that can contribute to a transition to a more circular and bio-based economy.
The Environmental Goals Commission's proposal was submitted in April 2022. It has almost been two years, and I cannot see that anything is happening in this incredibly important area.
Many previous proposals and reforms and initiated projects have been withdrawn by the sitting government. My question is therefore what the government and the Minister for Climate and Environment are doing to contribute to reducing Sweden's consumption emissions. And how is the government helping Swedish consumers to be able to reduce their climate impact?
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam President! I thank the member for the question.
If we start with what the government is doing in a purely concrete sense with the proposals that have come from the Environmental Goals Commission, I just want to first once again confirm that the government has tasked Statistics Sweden to propose a method to be able to follow up on statistics regarding the effects of exports on global emissions, based on the proposals that have been reported from the Environmental Goals Commission.
In addition, the government has tasked the National Agency for Public Procurement to update its tools for analyzing public procurement and their environmental and climate impact. Such work is therefore also underway.
The Government has also tasked the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Economic Research to jointly develop guidance with methods to be able to assess the effectiveness of climate policy. These documents should, in turn, be able to be used by authorities and the Government to repeatedly evaluate and report on the effectiveness of the conducted climate policy and propose measures and instruments that reduce Sweden's global climate footprint.
Just that perspective is very present in all the politics we conduct. We need to take greater consideration of the global context in which the climate crisis occurs. We cannot have measures that lead to carbon leakage when we export emission reductions.
At the same time, Sweden needs to be a leader and go first. In that case, it is very important to review how we can in different ways lower thresholds and begin work that other countries have not yet taken on.
The combination of being leading and at the same time not attributing production, purchasing, or imports to larger emissions generally is a very interesting and important part of the climate transition that Sweden is undergoing. It is also, as said, a perspective that is constantly present. I am convinced that the 850 pages that the member refers to are fully handled within the Government Offices.
I have mentioned some of the work that is already underway. We are looking very closely at how we can to a greater extent relate to the global climate footprint that Sweden generates. Not least, it is important to start by living as we are taught from the side of the authorities and the state and in different ways develop methods to not only calculate domestic emissions but the global climate footprint that one generates.
It is also entirely relevant, as the member mentions, that we have the greatest control over the emissions that occur within the country's borders. It is very important that we continue to develop our societies in the right direction and reduce the emissions that occur in every corner around our elongated country.
There are many aspects that could be highlighted in this work. More circular and resource-efficient business models, I believe, are very important for an industrial and exporting country like Sweden. There we see now, for example within the European Union, that we have very strict legislation to reduce emissions. I am primarily thinking of the emissions trading, but also of ESR commitments which make it necessary that our transition takes place, in black and white. Companies and industries must have more circular and resource-efficient business models. The linear ones will become very costly, and increasingly costly, moving forward.
Developing guidance in different ways in this transition, both for the private sector and for the public sector, is very important. Therefore, we are very grateful for the work that has taken place within the framework of the Environmental Goals Preparation.
Katarina Luhr (MP)
Madam President! The Minister for Climate and Environment highlights the importance of green exports and innovation in his answers. I agree that it is important that Sweden can lead the way, both as an innovation country and as a country that can export environmentally and climate-smart technology. However, I have not seen much action to broadly support, for example, the green industrial transition.
When it comes to the green industrial transformation in the north, one has even removed the national support for innovative and sustainable community construction projects in Norrbotten and Västerbotten. Still, this is a region that in many places needs to grow by perhaps 20-30 percent in a short time to be able to build sustainable housing for new workers for the green transition.
The construction and housing sector is a very important part to work with when it comes to reducing consumption emissions. Approximately one-fifth of Sweden's climate emissions come from there. The industry is calling for national policy instruments. This concerns both support for reuse and recycling of building materials and the limit values for climate declarations that have apparently gotten stuck at the government.
This is yet another piece of work that is finished but which does not even come out for consultation. When it comes to measures for a strong coordinated national effort for the circular economy, I have not heard so much about measures for just this.
And so it continues. Of all the different measures required to reduce climate emissions on the consumption side, measures are delayed or removed without I can see that they are replaced with something else, which should be a minimum requirement for an effective climate policy.
Where we today need a broad work with a large variation of support measures, we see above all a broad dismantling of the climate policy from the government. A significant part of consumption's environmental and climate impact occurs through public procurement and public investments. This summer, a new Swedish directive was supposed to have been put in place where climate requirements would become a mandatory procurement requirement, but the government has also removed this.
The Minister speaks about how we should export climate-smart technology, but it is also about someone wanting to buy our technology. How can we count on someone wanting to invest in buying our technology if not even we in Sweden want to set climate requirements on what is purchased by the state and municipalities?
The Environmental Goals Preparation highlights that support in various forms is needed to facilitate for both consumers and the business sector to transition to more sustainable consumption and production. Climate policy needs, for example, to facilitate for the business sector to become more circular, and the importance of information is emphasized, for example, different types of labeling, such as climate and energy declarations, and a supportive transport infrastructure but also economic instruments and regulations such as product requirements.
The government is reducing the support for the Svanen eco-label. Support for consumer organizations is being phased out. The tax on plastic bags, which are what we consume, is being removed. Railway projects for more sustainable travel are being shut down and postponed, and they even agree to raise the VAT on repairs that can contribute to things being used a bit longer.
There are, therefore, many measures that the government has scrapped already in year one, and I wonder what will come instead. Where is the new policy and the real measures? A quarter of the mandate period has passed, and climate measures have been dismantled. Now it is time to present what we get instead.
An effective climate policy can never mean that emissions increase, and we must get down to zero. When the Environmental Objectives Council released its proposal with a sharp goal to reduce consumption emissions to net zero by 2045, many cheered globally. I therefore want to know how the Minister intends to contribute to ensuring that Sweden can continue to hold the flag high and be a leading country in climate work, and how we can maintain our edge in the work for reduced climate emissions when it comes to consumption.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, the member, for many different questions! We could certainly have individual debates about those, and I would have gladly spoken about why we are changing the plastic bag tax. I do not think, for example, that it is appropriate to make it more expensive to take home your food in a bag produced from recycled plastic or bio-based plastic while one cannot access virgin plastic imported from China, where, for example, an emission leakage is a major risk with such a policy.
But that is not what this discussion is about. I have, for example, received questions here about the green industrial transformation and how we shall ensure that Sweden, as a country that sells both products and services, can offer these to the world market with a climate stamp.
This is going to be very interesting. What is it that makes so many large battery factories, actors within clean steel, and others want to be in Sweden as a state and have their production here? Well, it is not least because Sweden, with its fantastic hydropower and nuclear power, can offer clean electricity that they can use in their production. And because we have so much good base load, i.e., hydropower and nuclear power, we can add even more wind power. It is this that makes so many want to have their production in Sweden and not in other countries.
One might be able to blind oneself by staring at other countries' fine markers of things that are good for the climate, but if the electricity used to do all these things comes from fossil fuels, it is worse. The most important fundamental point in succeeding in having a green production with green products and green goods and services exported all around the world is a clean electricity system and clean energy production.
A major reason why this government had to take power is that it has been seen that a government is needed that expands the electricity supply and wants more wind power and more nuclear power instead of, like the previous government, leaning back and awaiting war and an electricity crisis.
We need to act proactively and expand our energy system and in that way ensure that the green industrial transformation can take place here. In addition to this, one needs to invest heavily. We are in a phase of the climate transition where we need to invest in the transition, and I am therefore proud to be part of the government that has presented the two second-largest budgets for the climate and environment area.
There is something interesting if one is curious about which was the largest budget and which had the most money for various investments in green industry up north or the transformation of various industries in southern Sweden, and it is that it actually was the budget for 2022. As we all in this chamber know, it was not the previous government's budget that won 2022, but it was the opposition's budget, i.e., the current government's.
The large investments in the climate in pure numbers, therefore, come from the right-wing bloc in Swedish politics. This may be confusing for people – why is it we who are investing the most money in the climate? It is because we know that Swedish industry will not stand strong in the future if we do not dare to expand, for example, Klimatklivet and Industriklivet in the way we are doing now. I am very happy that Klimatklivet during my time as minister will be larger than ever.
We expand what works, and we change, for example, that which means it becomes more expensive to bring home food in a plastic bag that may be completely recycled and thus does not destroy our environment or generate more emissions.
Katarina Luhr (MP)
Madam Speaker and Minister! I am listening to the Minister's response but do not feel even a bit reassured. We still have time to act against climate change, but it is urgent to reduce emissions, very urgent.
The Minister highlights that the government has put more money into the budget than anyone else, but at the same time, emissions are increasing. I cannot see how this can be an effective climate policy in any way at all.
Sweden's climate emissions from consumption constitute a large share of the total emissions, and therefore it is an extremely important part to address. It is no simple task to tackle, but for that very reason it is important that the work starts now. This is probably the area where the most different measures are needed, as the emissions include everything from leisure travel to house building and the food we eat.
The Environmental Goals Commission's proposed goal of net-zero emissions for consumption by 2045 feels far away when measures to achieve this effectively are being dismantled by the government, while the measures are not being replaced with anything else.
I raised this issue in the hope that the government had a plan, but I see no plan. Will the Minister for Environment and Climate present something that is in line with the Environment Goals Commission's previous proposals, which all parties have previously stood behind? And will we see any introduced target for reduced consumption emissions during the mandate period? My question remains.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam President! There are many aspects of Sweden's climate transition and our global impact to discuss. The Government has taken the proposals that came from the Environmental Objectives Council and is working with them, among other things by having tasked Statistics Sweden to review how our exports affect global emissions.
It is important to continue ensuring that we safeguard Sweden's role in being a leader in the climate transition and leading the way, while simultaneously encouraging more countries to become part of the transition. Something that becomes difficult to tell a country that is in the middle of its development—that is, where more and more people have food in their bellies, a roof over their heads, and their health intact—is that they should set this aside in favor of emission reductions. We must demonstrate the winning combination where the economy stands strong when one transitions and when one produces clean goods and services.
Emissions in the world are actually increasing largely because more and more people are escaping poverty and getting more money that they can spend on things, but also getting a higher standard of living. In different ways, we need to keep these two balls in mind when we try to influence countries around the world and primarily the developing countries.
There are many large emitting countries that I am convinced are looking closely at Sweden. They see that Sweden has low emissions, and they also want to continue to see that we have a strong economy. Because it is that which will make them follow suit.
We will continue to work to ensure that Sweden is an actor in the global arena that produces clean goods and services and in various ways contributes in that way to reducing the global climate footprint.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.