Photos: Arla and iStock

This section of the report describes how four areas of everyday life could look in a climate neutral Nordic society. The four areas are: Housing, Food, Transportation, and Consumption. These four areas cover a large part of the everyday life of the citizen. The categories are inspired by similar work conducted by the Hot or Cool Institute

Akenji, L., Bengtsson, M., Toivio, V., Lettenmeier, M., Fawcett, T., Parag, Y., Saheb, Y., Coote, A., Spangenberg, J. H., Capstick, S., Gore, T., Coscieme, L., Wackernagel, M., Kenner, D. (2021). 1.5-Degree Lifestyles:  Towards A Fair Consumption Space for All. Hot or Cool Institute, Berlin. Retrieved from: https://hotorcool.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Hot_or_Cool_1_5_lifestyles_FULL_REPORT_AND_ANNEX_B.pdf

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As with the previous section, the ideas and thoughts are gleaned from the interviews and supplemented with material from the discussions in the Nordic Pavilion at COP27.

Interview in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

In a vision of the climate neutral society, houses and apartments are likely smarter and more energy efficient, curbing emissions from this sector. One vision of the climate neutral society could be about urbanization and more liveable cities. In this vision, cities might be denser, with taller buildings, but with more public parks. Public infrastructure and access to essential services might be improved and more efficient, removing some (or all) of the need for private cars and car-necessary infrastructure.  

Another vision of the climate neutral society could be about flourishing rural communities. In this vision, people have rediscovered the joy of living in the countryside where strong communities in towns and villages are contributing to human well-being. We could also see the development of new communities around new green industrial investments.   

Underpinning both visions is efficient infrastructure. But it is not necessarily good physical infrastructure that enables certain ways of living and ensures liveable cities and rural areas – it could also be good digital infrastructure.  

Interview in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

In the climate neutral society, people might live in smaller houses/apartments but with greater access to shared spaces and facilities. We might also see a return of the “generational house” where multiple generations live together. In both cities and rural areas, greenery could have made a big re-entry into our neighbourhoods.

We might see clearer delineations between cities and the countryside, with areas reserved for biodiversity acting as natural borders between areas of human habitation.

The construction industry will likely have been fully decarbonized. Moreover, renovation before building something new could be the default option. New builds would likely be with new, innovative materials with a smaller environmental footprint. Maybe the walls in our homes are thicker in the future because we store captured CO₂ in new builds. The regulation for the construction business might be stricter, with a more circular business as a result.

It might also be that we move more often to more flexibly allocate the available square meters between us in society. Maybe housing is even something we can bring with us in the future. And maybe it is more a question of multilocality, e.g. the practice of carrying out active everyday life in multiple places with access to more than one residence

Randall, L., Ormstrup Vestergård, L., Rohrer, L., Huynh, D., Lidmo, J., Stjernberg, M., Weber, R., Sigurjonsdottir, H. R, Guðmundsdóttir, H., Kivi, L. (2022). Remote work: Effects on Nordic people, places and planning 2021-2024. Retrieved from: https://pub.nordregio.org/r-2022-3-remote-work-effects-on-nordics/#106561

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What does your vision of a climate neutral society look like?

Interview in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

In a future Nordic climate neutral society, food might be one of those areas of everyday life where we will see the largest changes compared to today.

It is likely that we will eat less meat and dairy products and instead have a diet consisting of more legumes and fish. It is also likely that our diets are more dependent on local produce and on the seasons.

In a Nordic vision of the future of the climate neutral society, maybe consumers pay more attention to the origin of the food – preferring food produced more locally to food transported from across the world.

The pricing of different food products might also be very different to today. It could be that products are transparently priced according to their full environmental impacts, shifting consumer patterns significantly and contributing to the shifts described above. In the Nordic climate neutral society, it might be easier to buy exactly what one needs, thus reducing food waste. It could be a society with a larger variety of interesting foods.

Interview in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

It could be a vision of a society where people are much more connected with their food. Shorter supply chains, more food production in local communities (see section “A society with strong, local communities”) and more personal interaction between producers and consumers could contribute to this.

It could be a vision of a society where food is produced very differently from today – maybe through regenerative farming. In this vision, more people would be employed in the agricultural sector and have a better understanding of how food is produced – aligned with all the planetary boundaries. As such, it is also a vision of minimizing the strain on other important resources, for example water. 

It could also be a vision of lab grown proteins. In this vision, a cultural change has happened, and meat alternatives no longer have to look like meat in order to be desirable. Maybe it also includes farming (and eating) insects.

The vision of food in a Nordic climate neutral society might be a combination of the two visions above. It might include precision farming, carbon farming and storage in agricultural soil, and more attention to biodiversity and environmental impacts.  

It could be a vision of a better utilization of food resources, locally and globally. In this vision, we have seen a massive amount of innovation in growing and producing food, and no one goes to bed hungry. It is a vision of both global trade – with a low or no carbon footprint – and resilient local communities.

Interview in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

What does your vision of a climate neutral society look like?

Photo: Roar Paaske

Interview in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

Today, transportation constitutes a large part of our everyday life in the Nordic coun­tries. As such, it is likely to play a large role in a vision of a climate neutral Nordic society.

It could be a vision of a society where the modes of transportation are very similar to today. It is likely that the costs of transportation closely reflect the environmental impacts. There will still be large numbers of private vehicles, but they will shift to alternative fuels, especially electricity.

Alternatively, it could be a vision of a radically different transportation system with fewer cars, better public transportation, and more focus on active forms of mobility. In this vision, the pathway towards climate neutrality might have been more focused on avoiding transport as opposed to improving transport.

Or the society could be a combination of both perspectives. For both, it is a vision of a less polluting transport sector, conducive for human health and well-being.

In a Nordic climate neutral society, cars might no longer be the dominant mode of everyday transportation. In this vision, cars have been (largely) replaced by better, more efficient, and more accessible public transportation. Accessible implies that public transport vehicles are all fitted with adequate means of addressing everyone's needs for transport and that the shared mobility and micro mobility have also been equipped with those accessibility measures.  

In rural areas, where public transportation is more difficult to implement, private car ownership might have been replaced with different types of transport-sharing schemes, e.g. mobility-as-a-service (MaaS), car-sharing schemes, and/or micro mobility sharing schemes. Good digital infrastructure, flexible and/or remote work could also contribute to a reduced transport need.

Interviews in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

In could be a society with infra­structure tailored to support an active lifestyle. In this vision, most of everyday transport is public transport combined with either biking or walking. The infrastructure might be recognizable – roads originally meant for cars – but is has been taken over by public transport and active mobility.

For longer distance travelling, the vision could be about reduced use of airplanes but better options with e.g. trains. It could also be about reviving “old” modes of transportation such as ferries or airships (blimps). It would mean that travelling is a more time-consuming activity but with more time on our hands (see section on “More spare time”), this might be seen as positive by citizens in the climate neutral society. In this vision, people have adapted to these new, slower ways of moving around by filling up that time doing things that they enjoy doing. The means of traveling have been accommodated with the necessary facilities to enable people to enjoy the travel for long distances, despite it taking longer.

It could also be a society where people spend more time in their local/regional areas (see section on “A society with strong, local communities”), and as such, the need for long-distance travel has been reduced compared to today.

Interviews in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

What does your vision of a climate neutral society look like?

Interview in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

A Nordic vision of the climate neutral society could be about a society that is more conscious about what it consumes. From government to companies to citizens. It might be a society where awareness of the ecological footprint of things has grown, with a profound effect on consumer patterns.

It could be a society characterized by a sufficiency thinking, where we replace cheap, low-quality products with high-quality items – maybe even produced closer to home.

It could be a vision of a society where both the cultural, institutional, and economical structures around consumption have undergone large changes. Culturally, it might be a society where consumption only plays a miniscule role in defining your identity. Where having the right car, the right watch, or the right clothes are less important.

Johan Rockström, discussions at COP27 in the Nordic Pavilion

Institutionally, it could be a vision of a society where “buying green” is no longer a thing. Instead, the environmentally friendly option is the cheap, accessible option. It might also entail a fully circular business sector focused on producing products that are easy to repair, to recycle, and to reuse.

It could also be a vision of a society where we rent or share more things (see section on “A society with strong, local communities”). Maybe it is a society where more than half of the things that people use are either borrowed or rented, facilitated by various public and private schemes and initiatives.

In this vision, most people do not own their appliances, but rather they lease them from an entity that then is responsible for making sure that they work and are repaired when necessary. The rate of repairability has increased dramatically and discarded products are taken apart and re-entered fully in the circular business loop.

Interview in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

In this society, products are designed to last and to be easy to repair.

Economically, it could be a vision of a society where the price on products fully reflects the environmental impacts and where there is full transparency for the consumer in how and where products have been produced. It might be a society without advertisements.

New, innovative types of business models might also be viable in this society.

It might be a society where business models have moved away from physical commodities to services, e.g. from producing light bulbs to lightning, or from owning a car to carpooling.

Maybe some businesses have even specialized in landfill mining, digging through existing landfills to procure raw materials, plastics, and metals for the circular economy.

Interview in the project Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality

What does your vision of a climate neutral society look like?