The Swedish emissions in the second quarter are the highest for the period in several years.
However, Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari is not worried about the numbers.
– It is clear that it is not good that emissions are increasing, but this is an expected situation, says Romina Pourmokhtari to TV4 Nyheterna.
Emissions of greenhouse gases from the Swedish economy increased sharply during the second quarter of this year. This is shown by statistics from Statistics Sweden, which were published on Thursday.
The emissions are the highest for a second quarter since 2021, and one of the main reasons is that the use of fossil diesel increased again after the reduction obligation was lowered from 30 to 6 percent, states Statistics Sweden.
However, the fact that emissions are increasing is not unexpected, says Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari. On the contrary, it is priced into the calculations.
– Our assessment from the beginning has been that emissions will increase slightly in 2024, and then decrease again in 2025 with all the climate policy the government is putting forward, says Romina Pourmokhtari to TV4 Nyheterna.
“Broad palette with more climate policy”
The crises of recent years have had a hard impact on Swedish wallets – something Romina Pourmokhtari believes has made the government have to rethink. Some of the measures have been reduced reduction obligations and reduced tax on petrol.
– We take responsibility in a tough situation. We must have a climate policy that works with the people and not against the people, and then we must adjust the fuel prices for the situation we are in, but then also bring out other policies.
So a climate policy that works more with people takes longer – does it lead to increased emissions?
– No, we have a period right now where we are experiencing something of a hangover. The previous government’s policy focused very much on fuel prices. We want a broad palette with more climate policy and several different solutions. We do more of several different small things and then the differences to the previous policy become very clear.