Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

No time for silos amid global heating

Kristina Persson 4th May 2022

Sweden needs a ‘joined-up’ approach to climate change or it will fall well short of its responsibilities.

silos,governance,Stockholm,Sweden,global heating,climate change
Acceleration needed—a charging station for electric buses in Gothenburg (Wirestock Creators / shutterstock.com)

All reports are clear and conclusive: the transformation to a fossil-free society must accelerate—starting now.

In its latest report last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change affirmed that only three years remain until it will be too late to keep the global temperature rise since pre-industrial times below 1.5C. In eight years we shall begin to exceed this threshold. Current policies will, if continued, mean an unliveable excess of 3C or more, this century.

At the beginning of June, politicians and activists from all over the world will gather in Stockholm to celebrate the memory of the first global environment conference, ‘Stockholm 1972’. More importantly, they will press for more action: greenhouse-gas emissions in the decade 2010-19 were the highest in the history of mankind—and they continue to increase.

The host-country, Sweden, is by no means an exception to this failure. The government´s own agency for evaluating the path to a fossil-free society, the Swedish Climate Policy Council, writes in its recent report that policy plays a key role in climate transition and the government needs to show more leadership:


Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content. We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here

Overall policy is not just the sum total of laws, rules and budget items. It is about the many aspects of leadership, formulating common goals, and making the path towards these goals understandable and a matter of urgency.

Governance in Sweden has so far proved inadequate to achieve the desired results. The climate council points out that the contribution of different policy areas must be strengthened to accelerate the transition and there must be better co-ordination. This is especially true of how the government utilises its agencies.

Silo structure

The Swedish governance structure is characterised by a relatively small Government Office and a very large family of ‘independent public agencies’, all with a role in the climate transformation. But they lack a clear mission from the government to go ahead, perform the transition and do it together. Instead, the silo structure within Swedish government is very strict, making a proactive, holistic approach with a system perspective very difficult—not to say impossible.

This is, according to the experience and knowledge of many, the main reason why today Sweden does not have climate policies adequate to the challenge. It has been at the forefront: electricity and heat production are already almost fossil-free and Swedish industry only emits about a third as much as corresponding production in other countries.

But the pace of transition is slow: with the exception of Covid-19 effects, emissions have been falling by only about 1 per cent a year. Continued incremental measures will not be sufficient to reduce the substantial emissions remaining from industry, transport and agriculture. Achieving Swedish climate goals requires more than a halving of emissions by 2030.

The Greta Thunberg generation and of course many older citizens cannot understand why political priorities, public debate and official action continue to ignore the fact that all over the world we are moving steadily in a direction that will seriously worsen conditions for a good life. With deteriorating living conditions, social tensions will grow and serious conflicts will occur, which in turn will make good government and democracy even more difficult.

Running out of time

We are running out of time. The climate council says Sweden can and should be at the forefront of accelerating progress towards a fossil-free society. There are solutions for almost any type of emission, without significant increases in cost. All the conditions are in place: citizens, the business community, the parliament and the European Union are in consensus.

Sweden can attain a fossil-free welfare society by 2045—it can do it even more quickly, according to recent calculations by the Environment Agency. ‘Only’ the political leadership and action is awaited.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

The detail of this path is clear. A report by Material Economics in 2021—part of the project ‘Climate Agenda: transforming Sweden’, by the independent think tank Global Utmaning, to produce a coherent plan for Sweden’s transition to net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions—showed that emissions could be reduced by 50 per cent by 2045 through electrification and use of hydrogen.

Biomass could contribute a 10-15 per cent reduction and increased resource efficiency and circular processes 20 per cent, the report said. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), in the context of cement production and waste incineration, could reduce emissions by a further 10 per cent. The remaining 10 per cent could be managed through negative emissions, primarily through bio-CCS.

Crucial challenges

But political decisions are unavoidable. To put the technology to work requires new legislation, changes in regulatory systems, new financing solutions, public investment and innovation.

Five crucial challenges need to be addressed very soon:

  • Secure the amount of fossil-free electricity needed for the transition. To double electricity production is a formidable challenge which will require new political instruments.
  • Accelerate the permit process—it can take ten years to build a new power line. Legislation is needed to shorten waiting times to a fraction of what they are today.
  • Implement measures to accelerate innovation and competitiveness. The state and the business community must share the risk to enable faster introduction of new technology on a wide scale.
  • Facilitate large-scale use of hydrogen, including with the infrastructure for its transport and storage. The plans and projects on the table today alone require more then 50 terawatt-hours of hydrogen to be made available.
  • Implement other required investments, such as charging infrastructure, new collective and private transport systems, increased material efficiency, waste management and national large-scale plastic collection systems for a circular economy.

Last but not least, this has to be a just transition. Investments in retraining will be needed at an early stage to match those losing jobs in the structural changes associated with the emerging labour market. And new transport systems will be required to secure mobility for those living in the sparsely populated countryside.

Sweden has the potential to become the world’s foremost green industrial nation and secure welfare, jobs and the climate. But if it is not to fall behind, radical measures are needed today.

Kristina Persson
Kristina Persson

Kristina Persson is senior advisor to the research programme FAIRTRANS (Fair transformation to a fossil-free society) at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. She is a former Swedish-government minister for strategic development and Nordic co-operation and founder of the independent think-tank Global Utmaning.

You are here: Home / Ecology / No time for silos amid global heating

Most Popular Posts

Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse
income inequality,inequality,Gini,1 per cent,elephant chart,elephant Global income inequality: time to revise the elephantBranko Milanovic
Orbán,Hungary,Russia,Putin,sanctions,European Union,EU,European Parliament,commission,funds,funding Time to confront Europe’s rogue state—HungaryStephen Pogány

Most Recent Posts

reality check,EU foreign policy,Russia Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—a reality check for the EUHeidi Mauer, Richard Whitman and Nicholas Wright
permanent EU investment fund,Recovery and Resilience Facility,public investment,RRF Towards a permanent EU investment fundPhilipp Heimberger and Andreas Lichtenberger
sustainability,SDGs,Finland Embedding sustainability in a government programmeJohanna Juselius
social dialogue,social partners Social dialogue must be at the heart of Europe’s futureClaes-Mikael Ståhl
Jacinda Ardern,women,leadership,New Zealand What it means when Jacinda Ardern calls timePeter Davis

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

The EU recovery strategy: a blueprint for a more Social Europe or a house of cards?

This new ETUI paper explores the European Union recovery strategy, with a focus on its potentially transformative aspects vis-à-vis European integration and its implications for the social dimension of the EU’s socio-economic governance. In particular, it reflects on whether the agreed measures provide sufficient safeguards against the spectre of austerity and whether these constitute steps away from treating social and labour policies as mere ‘variables’ of economic growth.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The winter issue of the Progressive Post magazine from FEPS is out!

The sequence of recent catastrophes has thrust new words into our vocabulary—'polycrisis', for example, even 'permacrisis'. These challenges have multiple origins, reinforce each other and cannot be tackled individually. But could they also be opportunities for the EU?

This issue offers compelling analyses on the European health union, multilateralism and international co-operation, the state of the union, political alternatives to the narrative imposed by the right and much more!


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube