3. Climate-related policies in officially supported Swedish export finance

EKN and SEK as public institutions must follow government policies, including broader Swedish climate commitments. Most importantly, as per the 2017 climate policy framework of its national parliament and compared to 1990 levels, Sweden needs to reduce its territorial emissions by 63% in 2030, 75% in 2040, and achieve net zero emissions in 2045 (Krisinformation, 2023).

Thus, slightly more ambitious than the EU-target of climate neutrality by 2050 (European Commission, n.d.).

By 2040, 100% of Sweden’s electricity production is set to come from clean energy sources (RE and nuclear), a key step for Sweden to become the world’s first fossil-free-welfare country (SEK, n.d.d). The framework also consists of an expert Climate Policy Council (Swedish Climate Policy Council, n.d.)

“[An] independent, interdisciplinary expert body tasked with evaluating how well the Government’s overall policy is aligned with the climate goal of no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.” (ibid.)

and a Climate Act (Swedish Parliament, 2017). As per the Climate Act, the Swedish Government must (1) present a climate report in its Budget Bill each year, (2) draw up a climate policy action plan every four years to describe how the climate targets are to be achieved, and (3) make sure that climate policy goals and budget policy goals work together (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, n.d.). Sweden does not consistently mention the role of exports across key climate policy documents (e.g., Ministry of the Environment, 2020, 2021; Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2023), but references were made in 2023 to the Report of the Swedish Climate Policy Council (2023) and the Climate Action Plan of the Swedish government.

Specifically on EKN’s export credit guarantees, see in detail https://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/990c26a040184c46acc66f89af34437f/regeringens-klimathandlingsplan--hela-vagen-till-nettonoll-skr-20232459.pdf.

This is surprising considering that as early as 2021 both the CEO of SEK, Magnus Montan, and the Director General of EKN, Anna-Karin Jatko, “[called] for a discussion about the effects Swedish exports has on the climate [and were] convinced that a successful Swedish export industry with innovative solutions is a crucial contribution to the global climate transition.” (SEK, 2021)

They further stress that “[the] size of the Swedish exports, which account for more than 70 percent of their annual turnover, indicates the scope of the contribution.” (ibid.)

Voluntarily, SEK set itself the goal that its entire lending portfolio, i.e. all government-backed lending for Swedish exports shall achieve net zero emissions by 2045, with the medium-term target of 50% of green loans by 2030 (ibid.). Greening Swedish export finance further and faster can have significant positive climate impacts: As per the first-ever analysis of climate benefits from Swedish exports (Material Economics, 2024), goods exported from Sweden since 2018 would have caused emissions of 37 million tonnes (Mt) CO₂ each year if they had been produced in other countries. However, in Sweden, they caused only 11 Mt CO₂, i.e., Swedish exports avoided global emissions of as much as 26 Mt CO₂per year. Text Box 2 lists further climate-related commitments and practices of relevance to EKN and SEK.

Text Box 2: Selected climate-related commitments and practices by/for EKN and SEK

In 2023, SEK and EKN developed an in-house methodology to evaluate significant transactions considering the Paris Agreement objectives (still in a pilot phase as of mid-2024).
In April 2022, the Cross-Party Committee on Environmental Objectives appointed by the Swedish Parliament proposed the new target that by 2045, in line with its national emissions target, Sweden’s exports should be fully climate-positive (EKN, n.d.a).
As of mid-2024, the summarising report and its implications are still being analysed by key stakeholders, as clarified in exchanges between EKN, SEK and the authors.
The Government has also directed Statistics Sweden to develop statistics on the climate benefits of exports which were published in April 2024.
See further https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/environment/environmental-accounts-and-sustainable-development/system-of-environmental-and-economic-accounts/pong/publications/report---statistics-on-the-climate-impact-of-exports/.
In 2021, the specialist advisory body was set up “with the aim of aligning the Swedish export finance system with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C”.

In 2020, SEK and EKN called for an advisory body in the form of the world’s first Scientific Climate Council to be established to help shift the public debate beyond domestic and consumption-based GHG emissions in Sweden. Set up in 2021, the council of four expert members has been providing advisory support to EKN and SEK to assist aligning the Swedish export finance system with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 °C goal ever since (e.g., EKN, n.d.a; SEK, n.d.e).

The following section provides for an in-depth assessment of all ‘Paris alignment’ dimensions and substantiates recommendations drawn from scientific literature and best practices in the global export finance system. This assessment is designed to guide EKN and SEK as well as responsible authorities to safely achieve net zero by 2045 or before.