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Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L).
1 / 2Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT
The explosions of the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 led to extensive leakage – which partly ends up on Sweden’s emissions account.
Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari says that it would be “very unfortunate” if Sweden was forced to pay fines for the gas.
The fossil gas partially leaked into Sweden’s economic zone, and will therefore be included in Sweden’s reporting of total emissions of greenhouse gases to the EU and the UN, the Environmental Protection Agency writes in a press release.
“The final statistics that the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency publishes on December 14 will therefore be significantly higher when the gas leak from Nord Stream is included,” writes the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
In total, this is an additional 5.8 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, in other words the amount of gas that affects the climate in the same way as 5.8 million tons of carbon dioxide. The figure is to be added to the preliminary figures for Sweden’s emissions in 2022, which amounted to 45.2 million tonnes.
“It would be very unfortunate if it leads to Sweden having to pay fines to the EU,” says Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L) in a written statement.
Together with Denmark, Sweden must contact the EU Commission to find a solution.
“My attitude is that when sabotage has taken place on another country’s gas pipeline, it would be worrying if Sweden is expected to foot the bill and that the emissions must be registered as ours,” continues Pourmokhtari.
The largest part of the gas that leaked from Nord Stream 1 and 2 consisted of methane, which has a major climate impact.
FACT The gas leaks in the Baltic Sea
Four leaks were discovered on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, on September 26 and 27, 2022, respectively.
Two of the leaks were in the Swedish economic zone, northeast of Bornholm, and two in the Danish economic zone, southeast of Bornholm. Countries’ economic zone is not the same as territorial waters.
Both Swedish and Danish seismic measurements showed that explosions took place in the sea a few hours before the respective leak was discovered.
Authorities and assessors in several countries early on leaned towards the fact that these were deliberate attacks. On 18 November last year, the Swedish prosecutor confirmed that the lines had been exposed to serious sabotage.
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