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Flooded cottage area in Eslöv municipality at the end of January.
1 / 2Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
Sweden must be equipped faster to withstand extreme weather. The government places great focus on water in its updated strategy for climate adaptation.
But many measures are delayed. A new investigation that will facilitate the municipalities’ work must not be ready until 2025.
Sweden is getting warmer and drier, but also wetter. Heavy rains and floods are already causing major damage. Extreme weather is expected to become more common in a changed climate and it will become more expensive if society is not properly equipped.
But Sweden is not sufficiently adapted and quickly needs to do more, stated the government’s expert council in 2022 in its basis for the updated national strategy for climate adaptation. The strategy was to be presented last year, but is only being presented now.
“Unclear”
And in the autumn budget there were reduced allocations for climate adaptation – which has been met with criticism.
But climate minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L) tells TT that according to the municipalities, the problem is not a lack of money, but that there is mainly a lack of clarity around the issue of responsibility when it comes to local climate adaptation.
According to the government, the strategy should contribute to moving from “words to action” in climate adaptation by facilitating faster preventive measures. But much revolves around measures – goals and decision-making bases – which will only be developed in the coming years. Among other things, an updated national climate and vulnerability analysis must be carried out.
Are there concrete measures that give quick effect in the strategy?
– An important focus is water and it is something that the government is acting sharply on in the short term, says Pourmokhtari and gives an ongoing investigation into robust and continuous delivery of water services and an analysis of the availability of groundwater as some examples.
New investigation
In order to speed up the local work with climate adaptation, new legislation and clearer financing models may be required, according to the government, which is appointing an investigation that should be completed in April 2025.
– The municipalities are clear that there is a lack of clarity about who is responsible for implementing a climate adaptation measure or effort in a certain location, says Pourmokhtari.
– The investigator must identify where the obstacles lie and how we can adapt, or have new, laws to facilitate and ensure that things go faster. Now they are struggling with laws, division of responsibilities and how to get funding.
Can Sweden afford to postpone important measures and decisions several years ahead?
– Absolutely not. This work should have been started earlier and progressed much further.
FACTSUpdated every five years
Swedish society’s adaptation to climate change takes place at different levels and in many different areas. Over 30 authorities and all 21 county administrative boards are tasked with working with climate adaptation.
To strengthen long-term climate adaptation work and national coordination, the government presented a national climate adaptation strategy in March 2018. It must be updated every five years.
The government has appointed a national expert council with responsibility for following up and evaluating climate adaptation work in Sweden. The expert council’s task is, among other things, to produce documentation for the revision of the national strategy for climate adaptation.
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