Sweden

The first country in the world to pass an environmental protection act in 1967, Sweden also hosted the first UN conference on the global environment in 1972. Since then, Sweden has not looked back, managing to grow its economy substantially while reducing carbon emissions and limiting pollution. More than half of Sweden’s national energy supply comes from renewables and a thorough legislation aims at further reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (Sweden.se).

Swedish Climate Change Act

In 2017 Sweden passed a climate change act into law which plans to achieve the following climate goals:

"By 2045, Sweden will have net zero emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and should thereafter achieve negative emissions. Negative emissions mean that greenhouse gas emissions from activities in Sweden are less than, for example, the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by nature as part of the ecocycle, or less than the emissions Sweden helps to reduce abroad by investing in various climate projects. However, the remaining emissions from activities on Swedish territory will be at least 85 per cent lower than in 1990.

Emissions in Sweden in the sectors that will be covered by the EU regulation on the division of responsibilities should, by 2030, be at least 63 per cent lower than emissions in 1990, and at least 75 per cent lower by 2040. The emissions covered are mainly from transport, machinery, small industrial and energy plants, housing and agriculture. These emissions are not included in the European Union Emissions Trading System, which covers most of the emissions from industry, electricity and district heating output, and flights departing from and arriving in the European Economic Area (EEA). In a similar way as for the long-term goal, parts of the goals may be achieved by 2030 and 2040 through supplementary measures, such as increased uptake of carbon dioxide by forests or by investing in various climate projects abroad. Such measures may be used to achieve a maximum of 8 and 2 percentage points respectively of the emission reduction goals by 2030 and 2040.

Emissions from domestic transport, excluding domestic aviation, will be reduced by at least 70 per cent by 2030 compared with 2010. The reason domestic aviation is not included in the goal is that domestic aviation is not included in the European Union Emissions Trading System."