Environmental ambitions for Sweden's EU presidency

The document outlines four strategic propositions for Sweden's 2023 EU presidency: ensuring energy crisis responses align with long-term climate goals, integrating enforceable sustainability standards into trade agreements, promoting 'just resilience' to address transboundary climate risks, and establishing an EU-wide approach to monitoring consumption-based emissions.

• Sweden should ensure that the EU's short-term energy security responses to the Russian war on Ukraine do not lead to long-term fossil fuel lock-in. Specifically, the authors argue that plans like REPowerEU must avoid "large investments in new fossil infrastructure" and that member states should not "subsidise dirty coal and solid fuels" for heating and power, as this risks reversing progress toward climate neutrality.
• The authors propose that Sweden promote "free and green trade" by insisting on "sanctionable sustainability standards" in trade negotiations with India, Indonesia, and Australia, and ensuring high standards in deals with Mexico, Chile, and Mercosur. This includes providing technical and financial assistance to Global South partners to meet these criteria.
• Sweden is encouraged to advocate for "just resilience" to address transboundary climate risks, moving beyond a protectionist approach to climate security. This involves strengthening global resilience, such as supporting food production adaptation in drought-prone countries, and aligning with the EU Adaptation Strategy and the UNFCCC's Global Goal on Adaptation.
• The document suggests Sweden lead the EU in addressing consumption-based emissions—emissions generated in other countries for imported goods. The authors propose that Sweden initiate an EU-wide monitoring system coordinated by Eurostat and work toward defining a collective EU target for reducing these emissions, potentially during the April 2023 informal environment ministers' meeting.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2022). Environmental ambitions for Sweden's EU presidency. https://www.sei.org/perspectives/environmental-ambitions-sweden-eu-presidency/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Environmental ambitions for Sweden's EU presidency. 2022. https://www.sei.org/perspectives/environmental-ambitions-sweden-eu-presidency/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Environmental ambitions for Sweden's EU presidency |date=15 November 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/perspectives/environmental-ambitions-sweden-eu-presidency/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2022environmental, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Environmental ambitions for Sweden's EU presidency}}, publisher = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://www.sei.org/perspectives/environmental-ambitions-sweden-eu-presidency/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }