The Swedish government will ease its efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions in the name of fighting inflation, raising concerns about the country’s 2045 carbon neutrality target.
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The right-wing government, backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), announced on Wednesday that Sweden’s greenhouse gas emissions would rise by 2030, largely due to tax breaks on fuels.
The Swedish government wants to cut taxes on gasoline and diesel to ease the pressure of inflation on Swedes’ purchasing power, which peaked at 12% year-on-year in December.
“As a result of decisions made between July 1, 2022 and July 1, 2023, emissions are expected to increase by 5.9 to 9.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2) by 2030, but to decrease by 1.8 million tonnes in the long term by 2045 .” “, it says in the budget draft.
The government recognizes that this decline is mainly due to the transport sector, whose emissions are expected to increase by 3.6 to 6.5 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.
“The measures adopted will not make it possible to achieve the goals set for the transport sector,” he admits.
In particular, the reduction in fuel tax “contributes to an increase in their consumption, an increase in traffic and a delayed electrification” of the vehicle fleet.
According to the government, cutting fuel taxes next year will cost 6.5 billion crowns or 550 million euros.
“It will be cheaper to fill up your car,” defended Oscar Sjöstedt, a right-wing SD MP who helped draft the budget.
The party “will continue to advocate for a reduction in fuel taxes,” he added.
Sweden is considered a good student in the fight against climate change and has set the goal of achieving carbon neutrality in 2045, exceeding the European Union’s 2050 target.
“Sweden will pursue an ambitious and effective climate policy that will make it possible to achieve climate goals,” Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari told the daily Dagens Nyheter.
“This budget should not be seen as the only solution to achieve these goals.”
Catastrophe for the climate
Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson promised that the government would return with “a climate action plan.”
For the opposition, however, this turning point is a worrying signal.
“The budget presented by the government is a catastrophe for the climate. We can ask ourselves whether the government does not understand the climate crisis or whether it does not have the will to address its impacts,” reacted on Facebook Janine Alm Ericson, environmentalist (Greens). His party called for incentives to buy electric cars.
In addition to cutting fuel taxes, the government wants to eliminate a tax on plastic bags introduced in 2020 by 2024 to meet consumption targets set by the European Union.
“This is a budget that favors the fuel industry and increases emissions,” laments Greenpeace, which is worried about a “decline in natural carbon sinks,” referring to the ecosystems that allow natural carbon capture and storage.
For the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, “small actions in favor of the climate are being swallowed up by actions that significantly increase emissions.”
A report published this year by an independent agency responsible for assessing Sweden’s climate policy, the Climate Policy Council, already assumed that the adopted changes would not reduce emissions quickly but would “increase them in the short term”.