Summary of key insights for advancing climate action initiatives
The world is facing an urgent climate crisis that demands a profound transformation to be completed within the coming decades. Addressing this crisis presents significant challenges, and effective climate action requires comprehensive solutions across all sectors, incorporating both technological solutions and non-technological approaches.
The Nordic countries have made substantial progress across a broad range of sectors by leveraging key enablers to overcome existing barriers to tackling climate change. Despite the many obstacles to scaling climate solutions globally, the Nordics have navigated these challenges and can provide learnings for other regions, in how to set ambitious climate targets ahead of 2050, implement impactful policies, and create an environment that fosters the growth and scaling of innovative climate solutions.
The key insights from these climate action cases provide three key learnings and identify three critical enablers for building the path towards a net-zero future.
Key learnings
- It is possible to achieve climate objectives without compromising development objectives through the implementation of well-balanced policy mixes
Since the 1990s, the Nordics have implemented carbon taxes, spurring renewable energy adoption and GHG reductions, especially in heating. Policies such as building standards, green certificates, and car subsidies have also led to energy and cost savings. At the same time the Nordics have managed to maintain sustained economic development, highlighting that ambitious climate targets can be combined with and beneficial for economic development.
- Developing renewables is good business and beneficial for building resilience in the face of growing geopolitical tensions
The Nordics have demonstrated that low-carbon energy sources can be developed into a sound business case, while simultaneously supporting energy security.
Several examples of successful renewables and enabling technologies such as district heating, wind energy, sand batteries and biowaste management systems implemented in the Nordics can provide scalable and replicable solutions globally.
- Nature-based solutions offer significant potential for rapid, deep and sustained mitigation
Experiences from the Nordics effectively showcase how nature-based solution have significantly contributed to climate change mitigation. Successful initiatives include the rewetting of peatlands in productive forests, which involved 2,100 hectares and led to reduced emissions by 6,100 tons CO2 equivalents, and the implementation of sustainable land management practices. These strategies have proven to be effective in reducing greenhouse gas emission by enhancing carbon sequestration and improving climate resilience without compromising livelihoods.
Key enablers
- Policy mixes, robust over time, are needed for supporting successful implementation of deep, rapid and sustained climate action
Ambitious climate action needs to be based on and supported by comprehensive policies across administrative branches. Polices aiming to promote emission deep, rapid and sustained emission reductions should consider innovation and investment support at an early stage. For example, carbon pricing and subsidies can be used to scale up new technologies, and standards and regulation to make green products mainstream. The government and other public actors like municipalities can also play an important role in providing relevant infrastructure and support in risk mitigation.
- Proactively building stakeholder support and local engagement are crucial for ensuring a just rapid transition away from fossil fuels
The Nordics showcase the importance of an inclusive approach to stakeholder engagement and inclusion in climate action and policy development, to build widespread support for ambitious targets. A proactive commitment to build meaningful and genuine stakeholder engagement has helped in addressing concerns related to increasing the ambition of climate policy and ensuring that a transition towards a net-zero economy would be based on wide public acceptance across all Nordic countries.
- Fostering genuine collaboration across sectors towards shared goals is key to success
The numerous examples of successful cross-Nordic collaborations between nations, industries, regions, and municipalities highlight the importance of building consensus on climate targets and joint action. Many climate action interventions such as geothermal heating-, wind energy, climate network and district heating projects have successfully been scaled and made mainstream through strong partnerships and collaborations between governments, the private sector, local authorities, NGOs and citizens.