Why Sweden is light-years ahead on climate

How does your country stack up against Sweden's progress?

Basically, there’s a sense of “we are in this together” altruism. Wish we could have the same attitude here in India

Science, education, democracy

Canada could follow Sweden's example but won't. We have a powerful fossil fuel industry which has a stranglehold on our governments.

This proves that decarbonisation isn't a drain on the economy. Edit: I understand it's easier for rich countries to decarbonise, but the point is it didn't cost Sweden it's economic growth.

While almost all of this information is factual, you are omitting or just missing some key points. As a Swede it’s always been incredibly clear to me, even from childhood, that we put in a lot of great work as a nation even before I was born, and throughout my life. The keys were that the government pushed for stuff that would just make it safer and cheaper to live here and business got behind it. All good and well. Today however we have had leadership, from most political parties, for a couple decades, that has been too scared to push for real change and is instead great at shuffling numbers. Most national experts show how we’ve failed miserably in rail (both passenger and cargo), forestry (monoculture, biodiversity loss, inflated carbon capture), and more. Plus we have huge companies that have production and other parts of their business outside of Sweden. That means the emissions can be huge and still not count as being Swedish. Our current government actually shut down the department of environment after like half a century. And many global and local environmental groups have shown very clearly how our current leadership are mostly purposely missing the target and failing to address crises, because private interests and economic growth comes first. We’re a nation that has done a lot well in this arena. But to highlight Sweden now, when we’re doing our worst job in decades, feels very strange to me as a Swede.

The biggest and most important decisions were made in the 70 and 80-tis. It's not like Sweden is on track with its goals today. It will miss the European 2030 goal for example while other countries in Europe will succeed.

do basically a science-based long term policies from a government that cares about it's people and future generations (which is basically a lottery chance for any non-nordic countries)

Love the optimism. As an Australian though I did snort at their claim to be a country of great distances.

Swedish people has always been innovative and hard working👍🏻

I’ve been to Sweden lots of times, it’s an amazing place with high standards of life

Basically: less greedy and less corrupted government, when compared to most Europe..

So the learning point here is: start 50 years ago.

Once again proving investing in advancements in energy and infrastructure is worth it and is always a net positive.

I don't know what to say. Bangladesh is one of the most severely affected countries in terms of climate change. However, when it comes to adaptability and other capabilities to mitigate climate change issues, we rank much lower. Our government and other institutions have much to learn from the initiatives taken by Swedish authorities to address climate change. It is also very challenging for us to switch to alternative and climate-efficient energy sources. We lack significant wealth, but our government is striving to implement such policies. For example, in 2024, Bangladesh became the 33rd nuclear power nation by establishing a nuclear power plant in Southern Bangladesh to power its industries, reducing dependence on fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. Despite these efforts, we still have much to do, even though we have limited capabilities.

"Find where your main climate impact is": Actually Sweden forgot what it was, and thought nuclear power wasn't part of the equation.

Actually, the increase in CO2 last year does not come from transport but from electricity production. The former green/left goverment shut down nuclear plants to the extent that we had to start using oil/coal plants in mid-winter 2022-23. Personal car transportation has NOT increased drastically due to general high cost, however the EV market has slowed down globally as the public gotten aware of the problems of the infancy of the technology. Also Sweden’s size makes for longer car travels which actuates these issues further; many charging stops etc.

Sweden embraced nuclear and waste-to-energy plants and they manage their forests in a way that produces lots of timber products and young replanted forest that suck up CO2. The US works hard to block these key components that worked for Sweden.

The current administration is slaughtering the climate ambition, missing all the goals we previously set up.

0:45 Finland has a target of net zero emissions by 2035. That is 10 years before Sweden, so actually, Finland has a tougher target, especially as we have less hydropower. When it comes to electricity, Finland is already practically guaranteed to meet it with a combination of nuclear, wind, hydro, and biomass, with nuclear and wind being the big ones. When it comes to the rest of energy-related emissions, there is still work to do, and Finland has similar problems as Sweden, for example the cold climate and low population density makes it harder to make electric cars viable. Also, agriculture has barely cut its emissions over decades.