Sweden not on track to meet climate targets, warns expert agency

Sweden’s climate policies are leading to a short-term increase in emissions and putting the country on a path to miss its 2030 reduction target, according to a report published on Thursday by a government policy review board.

Sweden’s coalition government – led by conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of the Moderate Party and backed by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats – made decisions in 2023 that will increase emissions in 2024, according to the Swedish Climate Policy Council.

However, a report by the Swedish Climate Policy Council (CPC), a leading expert body in the country, has rejected the government’s climate policy outright.

“Policy adopted in 2023 will increase emissions and does not lead towards the fulfilment of Sweden’s climate goals and EU commitments by 2030,” said the report by the council, which was set up by the previous government in 2018.

In particular, the Council said measures announced in the budget presented in September, such as a reduced fuel tax, put climate ambitions at risk.

But it also lamented the lack of concrete measures in the government’s “Climate Policy Action Plan”, a roadmap that the government is required by law to produce every four years.

Council chairman Asa Persson said the government was passing the buck for meeting Sweden’s climate targets and EU commitments by 2030 to the government in power after Sweden’s next general election in 2026.

Euractiv reported that last year, the Climate Policy Council criticised the newly formed coalition because Sweden—then at the helm of the EU Council—had increased its greenhouse gas emissions since the new right-wing government took office, while other EU member states were reducing them.

Emissions recommendations

The report was handed over to Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari who told reporters she would “analyse its contents.”

“I’m not particularly worried about some of the assessments made at this point. They are based on the government’s policy announcements during 2023, and there are several measures that have been added since then,” Pourmokhtari said, adding that she was confident some of the issues raised had already been addressed.

The report also makes recommendations to the government, including measures to reduce emissions from the transport sector, plans to increase carbon sequestration in forests and soils, and a strategy for carbon-neutral agriculture.

Often seen as a leader on climate issues, Sweden has set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2045, ahead of the EU’s 2050 target.

But even that target now looks out of reach, argues the agency’s vice president, Bjorn Sanden.

“We have examined the government’s action plan and concluded that the claim that it creates the conditions for achieving net-zero emissions by 2045 is misleading and lacks objectivity,” he told a press briefing.

(Euractiv with AFP)