Global miljöpåverkan från konsumtion på lokal och regional nivå

This 2012 report by the Stockholm Environment Institute describes the Resources and Energy Analysis Programme (REAP), a tool designed to calculate and illustrate the global environmental impact of consumption at national, regional, and local levels in Sweden. The report emphasizes the difference between traditional territory-based emission accounting and consumption-based accounting, which includes emissions from imported goods. It provides a detailed explanation of REAP's methodology, its database and scenario functions, and presents case studies from various Swedish municipalities to demonstrate how the tool can support policy decisions for sustainable development.

• Consumption-based emission accounting reveals a significantly higher environmental impact for Sweden than traditional territory-based accounting. While traditional statistics focus on emissions within national borders, consumption-based accounting includes emissions from imported goods and excludes exports, resulting in Swedish emissions that are approximately double those reported nationally.
• Research indicates that while national emissions in many high-income countries have decreased, consumption-based emissions have often increased. For Sweden, one study showed consumption-based emissions rose from 79 million tonnes of CO2 in 1997 to 93 million tonnes in 2004, an 18 percent increase, suggesting that national reductions are partly offset by increased emissions globally through imports.
• The REAP tool utilizes a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) method to calculate environmental loads. It combines global trade data from the GTAP database (covering 113 regions and 57 commodity groups as of 2004) with Swedish household consumption data, demographic geography from Experian, and local energy statistics from SCB to provide granular data down to the municipal level.
• Household consumption is the primary driver of environmental impact in REAP's analysis, accounting for over 60 percent of total greenhouse gas climate impact and nearly 80 percent of the ecological footprint. The three largest contributors to the household climate footprint are housing, food, and transport, each representing between 22 and 25 percent of the total.
• Indirect emissions—those embedded in the production and distribution of goods and services—are significantly larger than direct emissions. In Sweden, indirect impacts constitute approximately 80 percent of total household greenhouse gas emissions.
• Sweden's ecological footprint is substantially higher than the global average. In 2007, Sweden's footprint was 5.9 global hectares (gha) per person, compared to a global average of 1.8 gha per person. This implies that if everyone lived like Swedes, it would require resources equivalent to 3.25 Earths.
• Meat consumption is identified as the single largest contributor to the climate footprint within the food sector. In a detailed breakdown for Sweden, meat accounts for 0.64 tCO2e per person, significantly higher than other categories like bread, rice, and pasta (0.32 tCO2e).
• REAP's scenario function allows municipalities to model the impact of strategic decisions up to 2050. For example, a scenario for Luleå municipality showed that combining increased carpooling, reduced car travel, doubled fuel efficiency, and longer car ownership could reduce total transport-related emissions from private car use by 58 percent, from 85 kton to 36 kton CO2e.
• Reducing food waste presents a significant opportunity for reducing the ecological footprint. Using a UK study as a proxy, a scenario for Lund municipality estimated that better planning and utilization of food leftovers could reduce the ecological footprint from food consumption by 11 percent per person by 2020, from 1.45 gha to 1.29 gha.

APA

Axelsson, K. (2012). Global miljöpåverkan från konsumtion på lokal och regional nivå. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Axelsson-GlobalMiljopaverkanFranKonsumtionPaLokalOchRegionalNiva-2012.pdf

Chicago

Axelsson, Katarina. Global miljöpåverkan från konsumtion på lokal och regional nivå. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2012. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Axelsson-GlobalMiljopaverkanFranKonsumtionPaLokalOchRegionalNiva-2012.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Axelsson |first1=Katarina |title=Global miljöpåverkan från konsumtion på lokal och regional nivå |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2012 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Axelsson-GlobalMiljopaverkanFranKonsumtionPaLokalOchRegionalNiva-2012.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{axelsson2012global, author = {Axelsson, Katarina}, title = {{Global miljöpåverkan från konsumtion på lokal och regional nivå}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2012}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-ProjectReport-Axelsson-GlobalMiljopaverkanFranKonsumtionPaLokalOchRegionalNiva-2012.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }