13. Climate action

A changing climate is causing, among other things, changes in the pattern, frequency and intensity of droughts, heatwaves, water scarcity, floods and ecosystem collapse. Climate change poses threats to human health and safety. From a Swedish perspective, this goal represents a major challenge. This is because Swedish consumption has continued to increase, causing large greenhouse gas emissions in other countries, transport has increased over time in Sweden, and Sweden must make major adjustments to adapt society to rising sea levels, torrential rain and heatwaves (Glokala Sverige n.d.).

The goal in a local context

Climate change mitigation and adaptation in the city is about both reducing Malmö's greenhouse gas emissions and increasing its resilience and capacity to cope with the impacts of climate change. This may involve significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions while managing the impacts that can already be seen, such as heatwaves, flooding and sea level rise. One of the major challenges for Malmö is that it is a coastal city where the impacts of rising sea levels are most noticeable, but it is also somewhat of an asset in this work as the water can act as a cooling agent. Much of the work in combating and adapting to climate change takes place in the planning and management of the physical environment in the city.

What it looks like in Malmö

Increasing adaptive capacity to cope with climate change

The work on Malmö's adaptive capacity to the effects of climate change is based on several different activities in the city. The city has a long-term work on, among other things, how heat waves are managed within the implementation of the Environmental Programme for Malmö 2021-2030 (City of Malmö 2021), the City of Malmö's strategy for coastal protection, which includes plans to deal with rising sea levels, and the City of Malmö's stormwater plan, which deals with heavy rainfall that exceeds the capacity of the stormwater system. However, climate change mitigation is preferable to climate adaptation, as adapting the community to climate change is estimated to be much more financially expensive than mitigation. There are also technical limitations to how much we can adapt society to climate change. The knowledge we generate through Malmö's climate work also plays an important role in driving the transition in other cities, both nationally and internationally.

Malmö's climate adaptation work has made progress since 2015, according to measurements carried out by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and by Insurance Sweden. The measurements are made through a questionnaire sent to the municipalities and are based on the European Commission's tool for climate adaptation, the Adaptation Support Tool (Climate ADAPT n.d.; Hennlock et al 2023; Roth et al 2015). However, there is a negative trend in indicators showing the city's ability to cope with climate change, such as more impervious surfaces making stormwater management more difficult and growing vulnerable groups increasing the risks of heat waves (Miljöbarometern n.d.).

One challenge that has a major impact on climate change adaptation is the proportion of impervious surfaces in the city, which has increased since it began to be measured in 2000. Impervious surfaces are surfaces where water cannot penetrate, such as asphalt and concrete, but can also be wooden decks where the cracks between the planks are too narrow or gravel surfaces where the gravel is hard packed. Climate change means increased precipitation in Malmö, and impervious surfaces put more strain on stormwater systems, increasing the risk of flooding. The number and intensity of heatwaves is also expected to increase in the future, something we are already seeing signs of today. The main tool to manage and counteract this is to create more greenery and include more trees in planning, thereby utilising the ecosystem services they can provide. By using, among other things, a green space factor that shows the amount of greenery within a property, the City of Malmö is trying to increase green space when new buildings are built. Green spaces can be, for example, water surfaces, meadows and plantings where there is an opportunity for rainwater to penetrate the ground.

Work to combat climate change

The City of Malmö's environmental programme states that Malmö's goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Malmö's geographical area by 70% by 2030. The latest follow-up shows that emissions have fallen by 50% between the base year 1990 and 2023. Emissions within Malmö's geographical areas refer to all emissions that take place within the municipal boundaries of Malmö. The energy and transport sectors together account for 80% of these emissions.

To emphasise the importance of the rate of emission reduction towards 2030, Malmö uses a carbon budget. Malmö's carbon budget shows that greenhouse gas emissions in Malmö's geographical area need to be reduced by an average of 7% per year to reach the target. In 2021 and 2022, emissions in Malmö were slightly higher than the budget, but not greater than the emissions reduction can remain at 7 per cent per year (Miljöbarometern n.d.). However, if emissions increase or decrease more than expected, the 7 per cent figure will change.

One of the major challenges is consumption-based emissions. In 2019, Malmö residents' consumption-based emissions amounted to 6.2 tonnes per person. This is just below the average Swede, who has 6.3 tonnes per person. Malmö's 2030 target is 3.1 tonnes per person. According to the Paris Agreement, global emissions should average no more than 1 tonne per person per year by 2050, which means that consumption-based emissions will need to be significantly reduced even after 2030.

The work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is largely carried out within the City of Malmö's initiative Klimatomställning Malmö (Klimatomställning Malmö n.d.), a concerted effort to mobilise stakeholders in Malmö to contribute to the city's climate and environmental goals.

Indicators

13.1 Fossil-fuel-independent vehicles in the municipal fleet, percentage (%)

13.2 Fossil-fuel-independent passenger cars, percentage (%)

13.3 Average mileage of passenger cars, miles per resident

13.4 Municipal eco-friendly vehicles, percentage (%)

13.5 Consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions by category, tons of CO2-eq per person

13.6 Total greenhouse gas emissions to air, tons of CO2-eq

13.7 Greenhouse gas emissions per resident, tons of CO2-eq per person

13.8 Total greenhouse gas emissions and emissions by sector, kilotons

Referenser

Climate ADAPT (u.å.). Tillgänglig: https://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/en/knowledge/tools/adaptation-support-tool

Glokala Sverige (u.å.). Arbetsbok – Agenda 2030. Tillgänglig: https://fn.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Arbetsbok_Glokala_Sverige_2021.pdf

Hennlock, M., Matschke Ekholm, H., Karlsson, A. och Nilsson, Å. (2023). Klimatanpassning 2023. Så långt har Sveriges kommuner kommit. IVL Svenska miljöinstitutet. Tillgänglig: https://www.ivl.se/download/18.53d0007188a91f959e18b8/1686651790294/Klimatanpassning2023-kortrapport.pdf

Klimatomställning Malmö (u.å.) Tillgänglig: https://malmo.se/Miljo-och-klimat/Klimatomstallning-Malmo.html

Miljöbarometern (u.å.). Miljöbarometern. Tillgänglig: https://miljobarometern.malmo.se/

Malmö stad (2021). Miljöprogram för Malmö stad 2021 – 2030. Tillgänglig: https://malmo.se/Miljo-och-klimat/Miljo--och-klimatmal.html

Roth, S. och Thörn, P. (2015). Klimatanpassning 2015 – så långt har kommunerna kommit. IVL Svenska miljöinstitutet. Tillgänglig: https://diffusivesampling.ivl.se/download/18.72fab6cc1761c7ad2941df3/1608131247948/Klimatanpassning+hos+Sveriges+kommuner+2015.pdf