Climate change in Sweden
[3] Sweden has had one of the highest usages of biofuel in Europe and aims at prohibiting new sales of fossil-cars, including hybrid cars, by 2035, and for an energy supply system with zero net atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.
[6] The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) produces guidelines and resources to help citizens adapt to climate change.
[8] Governmental efforts include policy instruments and legislation to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
[3] The following table shows the yearly total emission of greenhouse gas in Sweden in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2).
[12] The following table shows the yearly emission of greenhouse gas in Sweden in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per capita (t CO2/capita).
[13] In 2000, Sweden ranked in place 76 out of 185 countries for the per capita greenhouse gas emissions when taking any land use changes into account.
The amount 10 million tonnes CO2eq can be compared with the bunker fuels metric which showed a total of 3.1 Mt CO2.
Listed below, an overview of large emitters of CO2 equivalents registered in Sweden in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS).
[35] In July 2018 Italy, Norway, Poland and France sent help to fight the dozens of forest fires in Sweden.
Sea ice cover is expected to decrease and be localized to the northern Gulf of Bothnia by the end on the century.
The transition to the current interglacial period was marked by a retreat of the Ice sheets and gradually warmer temperatures.
By 6,000–7,000 years BP, the temperature was slightly warmer than today and most of the southern half of the country was covered in deciduous forests.
Winter storms Gudrun in 2005 and Per in 2007 in southern Sweden overthrew huge volumes of forest and caused power cuts.
Areas like Skåne, Blekinge, Halland, Kronoberg, Gotland, and parts of Jönköping, Kalmar, and Västra Götaland counties were hit with winds reaching 30 m/s or more.
Despite the storm occurring in January, the weather at the time was mild which made the need for heat less than usual.
District heating systems in urban areas did not suffer from long power cuts to cause problems.
A major problem was telephone systems failure which delayed the clearing of roads and repair of overhead lines.
Nursing homes and elderly care services were also affected as individual safety alarms did not work.
[44] Sweden has socioeconomical advantages that help higher the safety awareness to prevent natural disasters.
The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) creates guidelines and strategies to help the society adapt to climate change.
Flood prevention can include pumping equipment, embankments and dykes, or devices to shut down water supply and sewage systems.
[45] At the 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) demanded:[46] 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.
With effect from 1 May 2003, RECS intends to encourage and increase the proportion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources.
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).
Sweden actively took part in some international climate policy programs, such as Prototype Carbon Funds (PCF) and Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ) 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: A Climate Act that targets zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 was agreed upon by Swedish parliament in June 2017, making Sweden the first country with a legally binding carbon neutrality target.
[56] The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC's) are the plans to fight climate change adapted for each country.
[57] Every party in the agreement has different goals based on its own historical climate records and the country's circumstances.
[58] Public participation is quite important in addressing climate change and its effects and developing adequate responses.
A little under half did not want to decrease internal building temperatures as a means of reducing climate change impact.
Stakeholders focus more on personal experience rather than results of how climate change will affect forests in the future.
