A few weeks ago, around 50,000 people marched for the climate in Stockholm. And during the summer, headlines about fires, heat waves, droughts and low water levels have followed one another. But the climate issue is barely noticeable in the election campaign.
Yet 2030, the end date for several climate goals, is only a few years away. Regardless of who forms a government after the election, the verdict will be out at the end of the mandate. And if the goals are to be achieved, swift and forceful action is required from the next government, according to the Climate Policy Council, which is tasked with evaluating climate policy.
This applies not least to emissions from traffic. The goal is to reduce them by 70 percent by 2030, compared with 2010. But SD, M, KD and L responded in TT's survey that they do not think Sweden should stick to the transport target any longer. It is just for show to pretend that it can be achieved in just four years, they believe. Instead, they want to replace it with an electrification target.
The opposition parties want to stick to both the EU's and Sweden's national climate goals for 2030.
Politically sensitive
The reason why so much focus is placed on transport is because it accounts for a third of total emissions, but also because traffic emissions are expected to be able to decrease relatively quickly. The problem for politicians is that what can have an effect in the short term - reducing the consumption of petrol and diesel - is also the most politically sensitive.
This could involve raising fuel taxes or reducing the amount of biofuels in petrol and diesel. Both measures raise the “price at the pump”, which can be difficult to sell to voters.
The Green Party is the clearest in proposing higher taxes and a reduction obligation, but TT's survey shows that L and V also believe that the reduction obligation may need to increase, although not to previous levels. Several parties, such as C, MP and S, want to provide support for domestic production of biofuels in order to put pressure on prices.
Electric car support
Even if the parties don't want to talk about raising fuel taxes, it could still happen this fall when two temporary tax cuts expire. If no active decision is made by the government in power at the time, the tax will bounce back up again.
Something that unites the parties is that they all see the transition to electric cars as the solution to the problem. But converting the vehicle fleet takes time, especially if it is cheaper to run on fossil fuels. That is why a number of parties are now promising that they want to introduce more generous electric car subsidies to speed up the switch to electric cars. Several want to lower the tax on charging electric cars and make it easier for everyone to charge at home, regardless of where they live.
Several parties also want to get more people to use public transport. For example, the Tidö parties have introduced half-price monthly passes until the end of the year, and V and MP want to introduce a card for the whole country for around 500 kronor a month.
The overall climate goal is that Sweden should have no net emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by 2045, and then achieve negative emissions. The EU should be climate neutral by 2050.
Sweden's interim target for 2030 is that emissions should then be 63 percent lower than in 1990.
By 2030, emissions from domestic transport, excluding domestic flights, should have decreased by at least 70 percent compared with 2010.
The EU's so-called ESR commitment by 2030 means that Sweden must reduce emissions by 50 percent compared with 2005.
Emissions covered by the EU's emissions trading system ETS 1 are not included in the interim targets for 2030. They mainly cover transport, agriculture, heating of properties and work machinery.
Source: Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
