The climate benefits of Swedish exports
- a new measure for calculation for the climate impact of exports and imports
Global climate change is a challenge that the world must take on together. A prerequisite for this is that individual countries can track emissions. This in turn requires accurate metrics.
A country's total climate impact consists of that which takes place within its own borders and that which occurs abroad, through trade and international activities. However, it is widely recognized that the production emissions of an importing country do not give a true picture of the total climate impact, as it obscures the emissions that take place in other countries on its behalf to meet the demand it represents on the world market. Therefore, consumption-based emissions are increasingly used as a complementary measure.
However, consumption-based emissions only capture half the picture of foreign trade. They focus on one scale - imports - but leave out the other - exports. As a result, countries like Sweden, which are characterized by a significantly less carbon-intensive energy mix than the world at large and significantly more climate-efficient export production, are disadvantaged.
To address this, Professor Astrid Kander presents in this report a new metric, called the technology-adjusted carbon footprint. It is a measure that takes into account consumption, but also considers the climate impact of exports, making it more accurate. Kander says that because Sweden produces in an eco-efficient way, the environment benefits when other countries replace their own production with Swedish-made products. So we should not scale down our economy but - on the contrary - scale up.
Climate impact of Swedish exports 1995-2020 - Astrid Kander (pdf)
