Sustainable Development Goals for Sweden

The report examines the applicability of the 169 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets to Sweden's domestic context. Through a rapid screening and detailed interpretation of selected targets, the authors find that the majority of SDGs are relevant to Sweden, challenging the notion that they apply only to developing nations. The paper highlights significant gaps in areas such as youth unemployment, income inequality, and sustainable consumption. It argues that national implementation requires a political, government-led process to translate vague global targets into specific, measurable national goals, emphasizing the need for policy coherence and cross-sectoral coordination.

• A rapid screening of 107 SDG targets (excluding means of implementation) revealed that 81 targets, or 76%, would require at least some work to achieve in Sweden by 2030, spanning all 16 goal areas.
• The authors identify six critical goal areas for Sweden's domestic agenda: Goal 4 (Quality Education), Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities), Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), Goal 13 (Climate Action), and Goal 14 (Life Below Water).
• Sweden faces specific challenges in education, with PISA scores for mathematics, reading, and science declining and falling below OECD averages.
• Despite being one of the most income-equal OECD countries, Sweden experienced the largest increase in inequality among OECD nations between 1985 and 2010, with income growth slowing for those earning less than 60% of the median income since the mid-1990s.
• Sweden's consumption patterns result in significant 'embedded' emissions abroad, and the carbon footprint of food wasted in Sweden is estimated at approximately 3% of the country's total carbon emissions.
• Progress on marine eutrophication and overfishing in the Baltic Sea has been slow, and national environmental quality objectives for marine areas are not on track to be met with current policies.
• The report identifies several systemic challenges in interpreting global SDGs for national use, including issues of scale, multidimensional targets, ambiguous wording (e.g., terms like 'promote' or 'enhance'), and 'zero visions' that are difficult to verify.
• Effective implementation of the SDGs in Sweden requires a government-led process, potentially centered in the Office of the Prime Minister, to ensure cross-sectoral coordination and avoid the marginalization that occurred with previous National Sustainable Development Strategies.
• The authors recommend prioritizing national indicators over global ones, as global indicators may not accurately identify the specific policy actions required to drive sustainable development within the Swedish context.

APA

Tenggren'], [. W. '. P. '. N. '. (2015). Sustainable Development Goals for Sweden. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WP-2015-10-SDG-Sweden.pdf

Chicago

Tenggren'], ['Nina Weitz', 'Åsa Persson', 'Måns Nilsson', 'Sandra. Sustainable Development Goals for Sweden. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2015. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WP-2015-10-SDG-Sweden.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tenggren'] |first1=['Nina Weitz', 'Åsa Persson', 'Måns Nilsson', 'Sandra |title=Sustainable Development Goals for Sweden |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=September 2015 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WP-2015-10-SDG-Sweden.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tenggren2015sustainable, author = {Tenggren'], ['Nina Weitz', 'Åsa Persson', 'Måns Nilsson', 'Sandra}, title = {{Sustainable Development Goals for Sweden}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2015}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-WP-2015-10-SDG-Sweden.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }