How will Sweden’s ambitious climate targets change how we eat and get around?

The document identifies significant implementation gaps in Sweden's path to a fossil-free welfare society by 2045, specifically within the food and transport sectors. In transport, it highlights a lack of tailored strategies for rural populations and a reliance on reactive policies to manage fuel price shocks. In the food sector, it notes a critical absence of clear consumption-based emission targets and a failure to address the need for significant dietary shifts, such as reducing animal protein intake.

• Sweden aims to be a fossil-free welfare society with net-zero emissions by 2045, but the transport sector's current rate of emissions reduction is only 25% of the pace required to meet its 2030 interim target of a 70% reduction compared to 2010 levels.
• Transport policies that discourage personal vehicle use are too generalized and fail to account for the specific needs of rural populations, who face limited public transport options and may struggle with the high costs and infrastructure requirements of zero-emission vehicles.
• Recent Swedish government measures to mitigate surging fuel and electricity prices, such as temporary fuel tax reductions and one-off compensations for car owners, are viewed as reactive and risk prolonging the use of fossil fuels and personal cars.
• The National Food Strategy focuses heavily on production and self-sufficiency but lacks specific targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from food consumption or clear visions for changing consumption patterns.
• Academic evidence suggests that Swedish dietary patterns exceed global environmental boundaries and that the most significant emissions reductions would come from reducing the consumption of animal products, particularly red meat, yet current policies rely on ineffective consumer-led transitions.
• Sweden has set a target to increase the share of public transport, cycling, and walking to at least 25% of all personal transport by 2025 (up from 20% in 2020) and to 50% in the long term, but there is a lack of transparency and planning on how to achieve this behavioral shift.

APA

Gong, J., & Maltais, A. (2022). How will Sweden’s ambitious climate targets change how we eat and get around? Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/sei-wp-climate-food-transport-gong-2205a.pdf

Chicago

Gong, Jindan, and Aaron Maltais. How will Sweden’s ambitious climate targets change how we eat and get around? Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/sei-wp-climate-food-transport-gong-2205a.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gong |first1=Jindan |last2=Maltais |first2=Aaron |title=How will Sweden’s ambitious climate targets change how we eat and get around? |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=June 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/sei-wp-climate-food-transport-gong-2205a.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gong2022how, author = {Gong, Jindan and Maltais, Aaron}, title = {{How will Sweden’s ambitious climate targets change how we eat and get around?}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/sei-wp-climate-food-transport-gong-2205a.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }