3. Consumption-Based Emissions in the Nordic Countries

As described below in the sections for Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, calculations of consumption-based emissions of greenhouse gases have been made for all countries. However, the methods used to make the calculations differ. For Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, similar but non-identical methods have been used. In all cases, national statistics data are used for the studied country, and then combined with an EE MRIOA model for the rest of the world. An advantage of this approach is that data for the studied country that is considered to be of high-quality can be used, while still being able to include the whole supply-chain with an EE MRIOA model. The linking between the national statistical model and the rest of the world model can be done in different ways (e.g. Palm et al., 2019). For all countries, Exiobase (Wood et al., 2015) is currently used for the rest of the world.

For Iceland, another approach is used which differs in several ways. One difference is that a hybrid method is used where process data for some emissions are com­bined with data from an EE MRIOA (Heinonen et al., 2022). Another difference is that only private consumption is considered and that data on consumption expen­ditures are not taken from national statistics, instead data from a survey is used. 

Since different approaches have been used across all countries, the absolute numbers may not be directly comparable. It is preferable if results can be calculated using one method when comparing different countries. Eurostat (2024) calculate consumption-based emissions of CO₂. They use the MRIOA model Figaro. Their results are presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Consumption-based CO₂ emissions, million tonnes per year (Eurostat, 2024)

It may be noted that there are similarities in the results for the different countries. Emissions show a declining trend, although it may be argued that emissions are not declining fast enough in relation to international agreements to limit global temperature increase to well below 2 ℃ and strive for 1.5 ℃. Consumption-based emissions are also higher than territorial emissions in the Nordic countries. Globally, total consumption-based emissions are equal to production-based emissions (which equals territorial emissions plus international transport). However, for rich countries, consumption-based emissions are typically higher than territorial emissions.

It can be noted that the declining emissions trend is also seen in the more detailed data for specific countries presented in Figure 3 below. It can also be noted that emissions vary between different years, indicating the importance of longer time series in order to see trends. Since only CO₂ emissions are included here, the total emissions of GHGs are higher than shown here. Figure 2 illustrates total CO₂ emissions per country. In Figure 3 the CO₂ emissions per capita are shown. Whereas Sweden emits the most CO₂ per year in total of the four neighbouring countries (Figure 2), Swedish consumers emit less per capita compared with their neighbours. Emissions for Denmark and Finland tail each other both in total (Figure 2) and per capita (Figure 3).

The slow decrease in Norwegian total emissions (Figure 2) can partly be explained by a growing population and possibly by the large oil and gas sector. Norwegian per capita emissions (Figure 3) are decreasing faster than total emissions. However, Norwegian per capita emissions are decreasing slower than those of other studied Nordic countries. Even if production is not increasing, an increasing amount of energy, and thus emissions, is required to extract remaining oil and gas as reserves are emptied. It is however unclear if this has a significant influence on the consumption-based emissions. This indicates a need for further studies on the efficiency of policies in different countries.

Figure 3. Consumption-based CO₂ emissions per capita, tonnes per capita and year (Eurostat, 2024)

The emissions associated with a country’s consumption can occur all over the world. Table 1 shows some of the countries where CO₂ emissions occur related to Denmark’s, Finland’s, Sweden’s and Norway’s consumption. First it can be noted that the most important country, in terms of emissions, for all four countries is the country itself. For example, the most important country, where most emissions occur, for consumption in Norway is Norway. Somewhere between slightly more than a third (Norway) and a little less than half (Finland) of the emissions are occurring in the home country. That means that more than half of the emissions are occurring in other countries. Some of the relevant countries are shown in Table 1. The share of emissions depends both on how much is imported from that country and how large the emission intensities are in that country. It can for example be noted that somewhere between 3 and 5 percent of the emissions are occurring in Germany. This is a reminder that the EU as a whole is important for all four countries. Approximately 3 to 5 percent of the emissions associated with each country’s consumption occur in other Nordic countries. Thus, on average, as much CO₂ emissions are imported from Germany to each of the Nordic countries in Table 1 as are imported from the neighbouring Nordic countries together, although the German economy is larger than the economy of the Nordic countries combined. This reflects the relative importance of the Nordic economies for each other as well as the German economy in inter-European trade.

That China accounts for 9–15 percent of imported consumption-based CO₂ emissions in the four countries reflects the importance of China in global trade. CO₂ imports from the USA only account for a fraction of CO₂ imports from China even though the US economy is substantially larger (IMF, 2024).

Table 1. Share of Denmark’s, Finland’s, Sweden’s and Norway’s consumption-based CO₂ emissions that occur in some selected countries.

The Nordic countries have many similarities, as well as important differences, in their emission of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants, and in policies addressing emissions. Comparing sectors emitting the most territorial GHGs in the respective countries exemplifies this.

Denmark stands out among Nordic countries due its large agricultural sector. In Denmark, 30% of emitted greenhouse gases come from agriculture and land use, 34% from energy, industry, and heating, 30% from transport, and 6% from waste (Danish Council on Climate Change, 2024).

In Finland, the stationary energy production sector is responsible for approximately 50% of the territorial GHG emissions without the LULUCF sector, followed by transport (20%), agriculture (14%), and industrial process emissions (10%).

In Iceland, the almost fully renewables based stationary energy production system leads to a different profile. The energy sector emissions occupy a share of slightly below 40% of the country’s overall emissions, but these mainly consist of transport and fishing fleet fuel use. Industrial process emissions have also a roughly 40% share, and agriculture around 14% share.

Norway differs from other Nordic countries in its oil and gas industry, which is responsible for 25% of Norway’s GHG emissions. This is followed by industry and mining (23%), road traffic (17%) and agriculture (10%) (Statistics Norway, 2024).

In Sweden, 33% of emitted greenhouse gases come from industrial processes, 32% from domestic transport and 14% from agriculture (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2024).

One important difference between the countries is their affiliation with the EU. While Denmark, Finland and Sweden are EU members, Norway and Iceland are tightly integrated with the EU via the European Economic Area (EEA) and they also cooperate closely with the EU on climate policies. The current report focuses on national polices, but the country specific descriptions below also cover regional or local initiatives in order to illustrate the potential to address emissions at this level.

Statistics Denmark publishes yearly environmental accounts of greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants. In 2022, Denmark emitted 44 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalents (CO₂e) within its borders. This corresponds to 7.5 tonnes of CO₂e per inhabitant of Denmark. Denmark is a small, open economy and therefore total emissions within its borders differ from its overall climate footprint. The climate footprint shows how Danish private and public consumption and investments contribute to the global emission of greenhouse gases - regardless of whether the emissions occur in Denmark or in other countries via the import of goods. Logically, emissions from production for Danish export are not included. The calculation of a country’s climate footprint can in practice only be done through complicated model calculations, where simplifying assumptions and estimates have to be made. That means climate footprints are characterized by considerable uncertainty, especially the estimation of emissions abroad. In addition, there are no international guidelines or reporting obligations for these calculations yet (Pedersen, 2021). Statistics Denmark therefore regards calculations of the climate footprint as “experimental statistics” (Statistics Denmark, no date). However, they still publish an estimate of the Danish climate footprint, which was 64 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalents in 2022, corresponding to 11 tonnes of CO₂ equivalents per inhabitant of Denmark (Statistics Denmark, no date).

Since at least 2007, there has been a downwards trend for consumption-based GHG emissions attributed to consumption and investments in Denmark (see Figure 4). By 2022, it was estimated that Denmark had reduced greenhouse gas emissions within its borders by 41 percent since 1990 (Statistics Denmark, no date). However, by 2022 the Danish consumption-based GHG footprint had only been reduced by 18 percent since 1990. While the climate footprint within Danish borders had decreased by 45 percent, the estimated climate footprint in other countries from consumption and investments in Denmark had increased by 31 percent in the same period (Statistics Denmark, 2021).

The consumption category in which the Danish consumption-based GHG footprint has declined the most is housing, which is consistent with a large part of the decrease in greenhouse gas emissions being due to the switch to renewable energy, such as wind power, solar, and biomass. In 2022, renewable energy accounted for 45.5 percent of energy consumption in Denmark (Statistics Denmark, no date). In all other consumption categories, including public procurement, the decline is marginal, and emissions from investments were higher in 2022 than in 1990.

Figure 4. Historic trend for consumption-based GHG (ton per year) by consumption and investment category 1990–2022.

Source: Statistics Denmark, https://www.statistikbanken.dk/aftryk1

In 2020, the Danish Parliament decided on a Climate Act with the goal of achieving overall climate neutrality in 2050 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent in 2030 compared to 1990 (Retsinformation, 2021). In 2022, the current government changed the target year for overall climate neutrality to 2045 (The Danish Prime Minister’s Office, 2022). Although the rate of reduction of emissions within Danish borders seem to be on track to reach national and international targets (Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities, 2024), the estimated reduction in global emission from consumption and investments in Denmark is much smaller, primarily because estimated emissions abroad are increasing, or decreasing at a lower pace than domestic emissions. The Danish Climate Council, among others, has expressed a concern that Denmark's consumption-based GHG emissions are not decreasing as much as required by the Paris Agreement (Klimarådet, 2023).

The Danish Climate Act does not define clear targets for limiting environmental pressures outside Denmark's borders. However, it expresses the ambition that Denmark should play a leading role in international climate efforts, to inspire and influence the rest of the world. The Climate Act also mentions several global action areas, which have subsequently become part of the government’s long-term global climate strategy (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, no date). However, the strategy has been criticised for lacking concrete and quantitative goals for Denmark's global climate action, which makes it unclear exactly what it intends to achieve and what is to be measured Klimarådet. In its foundation, the Danish government writes that it wants to increase the ambitions for Denmark's footprint in the world and in this connection examine the consequences of setting a target for the climate footprint of Danish consumption. However, while acknowledging the ambitions, the Danish Climate Council calls on the government to work to concretize efforts for specific global action areas (Klimarådet, 2023).

As of the end of 2023, almost all Danish municipalities have approved and politically anchored climate action plans ready to go from plan to action (Local government Denmark, 2024) as part of the Klimaalliancen (the Climate Alliance), which in April 2023 succeeded the DK2020 collaboration. The municipal action plans are certified by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (Concito, 2023) as compatible with the Paris Agreement. If the municipal climate action plans live up to their ambitions, they will surpass the national 70% reduction target. The plans focus on all sectors within the municipality's geographical area including emissions from end consumption. For example, in the energy sector, almost all municipalities aim to phase out individual oil and gas boilers, either by expanding the district heating network or promoting heat pumps. In addition, many municipalities are working to establish wind and solar energy plants and phase out fossil fuels from district heating. In the transport area, the municipalities work mainly to electrify public transport and expand charging infrastructure for electric cars. In addition, they aim to change citizens' transport behaviour, including promoting cycling and co-driving arrangements. Approx. 2/3 of the municipalities plan to convert the municipality's own car fleet to electric or plug-in hybrid models.

The municipalities expect to achieve most of their emission reduction from the energy sector (112% overall in 2030), compared to the municipality's selected base year (2016–2020), primarily by reducing the use of fossil fuels (92%). Emissions in the transport sector are expected to be reduced by 25%, by 63% in industry, by 33% in agriculture and land use, and by 23% in other sectors.

Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) publishes yearly environmental accounts on consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions. The latest publication covers the period 2000–2021. Their consumption-based greenhouse gas accounting follows the environmentally extended input-output approach, and utilizes the ENVIMAT model developed for the Finnish economy by Finnish Environment Institute, Thule Institute, University of Oulu, and MTT Agrifood Research Finland (Seppälä et al., 2011). It was updated for the year 2019 to include a multi-region input-output model EXIOBASE to improve the calculation of emissions outside Finland. The trend since the first year, 2000, has been declining despite increasing consumption expenditure. This mostly relates to decreases in the GHG intensity of energy production both in Finland and globally. Another reason for the decrease is the improved preciseness of the assessment related to the production and delivery chain emissions of the foreign countries which actually participate in the chain (Finnish Environment Institute, 2024). According to SYKE, the Finnish consumption-based GHG footprints in 2021 for private consumption were approximately 7.7 tonnes per person. This represents an almost 50% reduction since the peak year 2003. However, the footprints are still well above the global average as well as the mitigation pathway for the Paris target for limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees C (Heinonen et al., 2022; Vogel and Hickel, 2023).

Figure 5. Average expenditures and consumption-based CO₂e-emissions of Finns 2000–2021

The Finnish climate policy is guided by the Finnish Climate Act (Finlex, no date). The law sets GHG mitigation targets for the years 2030, 2040 and 2050 based on territorial emissions accounting (i.e. excluding emissions outside the Finnish territory). The goal for 2030 is a 60% reduction compared to the 1990 level, an 80% reduction by 2040, and a 90 95% reduction by 2050. Furthermore, the law includes the target of carbon neutrality by 2035, achieved by balancing emissions and sinks. The Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) produces annual information about the consumption-based emissions in Finland. Currently there is no connection between the consumption-based accounting and the Finnish climate policy.

There are some signs that this connection will be made on a policy level. Although the focus remains on territorial emissions, the Medium-Term Climate Change Policy Plan Towards a Carbon-Neutral Society in 2035 recognizes the need to steer consumption towards higher climate-sustainability (Finnish Ministry of the Environment, 2022). The plan discusses the need to steer consumption based on analysis which reveals that Finland is not on the way to reach the carbon neutrality target of 2035 without further actions. The Medium-Term Climate Change Policy Plan Towards a Carbon-Neutral Society in 2035 encourages consumers to halve their carbon footprints. Based on this premise, the collaborative project Policy instruments to reduce the carbon footprint of household consumption was launched between Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), University of Helsinki, and Natural Resources Institute Finland. Using the ENVIMAT model and a Policy Delphi approach, researchers suggest that the consumption-based carbon footprints can almost be halved by 2035 by adding policies to steer consumption (Salo et al., 2023). Consumption-based emissions are also briefly covered in Finland’s Annual Climate Report 2023 (Finnish Ministry of the Environment, 2023) with references to the above-mentioned Policy instruments project, and to carbon footprint calculations produced by Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE).

In January 2023, the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE, no date) published the municipal level consumption-based carbon footprints for all the municipalities in Finland for the first time (Carbon Neutral Finland, 2023). In the future, updates will be published along with the national level consumption-based figures. Thus far there is no direct connection between the consumption-based accounts and municipal level climate policies in Finland.

Consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions are not measured in Iceland. However, recent research from the University of Iceland concerning the consumption-based carbon footprints of private consumption, puts the consumption-based carbon footprints at just under 7 tonnes per capita (Heinonen et al., 2022), see Figure 6.

Figure 6: Carbon footprints of Icelanders across eleven per capita income brackets (Heinonen et al., 2022, cropped Figure 1).

Iceland does not have any quantified environmental targets for activities happening outside the country's borders. Policies aimed at reducing consumption-based carbon emissions are few, and those which do exist pertain to food, flights (CORSIA), environmental education, fossil fuel tax, and waste (Government of Iceland, 2023).

As an initiative, the former prime minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, established the cooperation platform Sustainable Iceland, which has the role of speeding up action to achieve the UN Sustainable Development goals, wellbeing and a just transition (Government of Iceland, Prime Minister's office 2023). It brings together repre­sen­ta­tives of the Icelandic parliament, central government, municipalities, and NGOs.

One of the tasks of the platform is to formulate a sustainable development strategy for Iceland. The draft was open for comments in the first quarter of 2024 (Ministry of the Presidency, 2024). The strategy recognizes the climate impact of consumption and acknowledges that the country has the lowest performance on the topic of sustainable consumption and production. This topic is on the list of the 5 key goals that the platform will prioritize.

The draft strategy refers to the global effects of local consumption as “spillover effects”. These are to be tackled by reducing consumption and implementing a circular economy. How this can be achieved is unclear, although the draft mentions that the EU taxonomy will contribute to this development, and it emphasizes the importance of international cooperation on data gathering. The draft further claims that negative spillover effects will be minimized by increasing the country's contributions to development cooperation. The platform held a side event at the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development 2023 to discuss strategies to manage the spillover effects and achieve the SDGs globally.

Reykjavík City is by far the most populated municipality in Iceland and has the most developed climate neutrality goals and aims to become carbon neutral by 2040 (Reykjavík City, 2021). However, their carbon accounting does not include the climate impact of consumption. It is briefly mentioned in their climate accounting document, where it is stated that adding the impact from personal consumption of food, other products, and services would double the carbon footprint of the municipality (EFLA consultants for Reykjavík City, 2022). In their Climate Action Plan, consumption is mainly mentioned in terms of transportation and sorting waste. However, there are also actions to create vegetable markets in neighbourhoods and support projects that focus either on repairing electronics or tool libraries (Reykjavík City, 2021). 

The research and data available concerning emissions from consumption in Norway is scarce. Every year Statistics Norway publishes statistics on territorial emissions, with contributions from different sectors such as oil and gas extraction, manufacturing industries and mining, and road traffic (Statistics Norway, 2022). So far, however, the statistics have been limited to territorial emissions and do not provide consumption-based numbers.

The first official estimate for consumption-based emissions was published in 2024 by the Norwegian Environment Agency (Norwegian Environment Agency, 2024). Other reports initiated by the private sector (e.g., Future in Our Hands, 2021; 2024) as well as the public sector (NOU, 2023: 25) also address consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions. The estimates for the consumption-based emissions show a large spread, depending on which method and data they use, as shown in Figure 7 (for CO₂ emissions). This is similar to the uncertainties identified by Statistics Denmark (see above). These estimates include both private and public consumption as well as investments.

Figure 7. Different estimates of the consumption-based CO₂ emissions in Norway. Figure based on data collected by Robbie Andrew (Consumption-based emissions (robbieandrew.github.io)) and the CaFean report (Norwegian Environment Agency, 2024).

Figure 8 shows how the consumption-based emissions originate from the consumption of different products and services.

Figure 8. The emissions embodied in final products in Norway 2020, by origin of emissions aggregated by sector. Figure taken from a CaFean report (Norwegian Environment Agency, 2024)

Norwegian consumption-based emission in 2017 was in total 58.2 million tonnes CO₂ equivalents (MtCO₂e), or 11.1 tonnes CO₂ equivalents per citizen (Future in Our Hands, 2021). 42% of the emissions were produced abroad, mainly in other European and Asian countries. Household consumption comprised 64% of the total footprint, or 7.1 tCO₂e/person. For comparison, the global average household consumption footprint has been estimated to 3.4 tonnes of CO₂ equivalents per capita (Ivanova et al., 2015). The household footprint was mainly made up of emissions connected to transport, food, and housing, including energy consumption (Future in Our Hands, 2021, p. 2). Direct greenhouse gas emissions from Norwegian households have decreased by 30% since 1990 and constitute 7.2% of direct greenhouse gas emissions from Norwegian economic activity (Statistics Norway, 2024, Tabell 13932).

On a global scale, Norway’s consumption continues to be high. According to calculations from the OECD, Norway has the third-highest material consumption of all the OECD countries (NOU 2023: 25). While the territorial perspective (which is the ‘default’ accounting perspective today) does not consider to what extent Norwegian consumption is produced abroad, Norwegian consumption causes emissions abroad. Norway also uses a lot of products, which emit dangerous environmental substances (Norwegian Environment Agency, 2017). Indirectly, through the consumption of fuel, the Norwegian petroleum sector also matters for consumption-based emissions. However, in comparison to the large export of petroleum, these emissions within Norway are rather small.

Norway’s climate mitigation target is in line with the EU’s, with its latest Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement in November 2022 being a reduction of at least 55% by 2030 below 1990-levels. The government’s Climate Action Plan for 2021–2030 (Meld. St. 13 (2020–2021)) states that from 1 January 2030, Norwegian greenhouse gas emissions will be offset by emission reductions in other countries either through emission trading, international cooperation on emission reductions or project-based cooperation. The Climate Change Act requires that the government submits updated climate targets to the Parliament every five years. Norway cooperates closely with the European Union to reach their common climate targets. Norway has been part of the EU Emission Trading System since 2008 and entered an agreement with the EU in 2019 to join the EU’s Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) and the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation (Farstad et al., 2024).

Norway does not have a quantifiable goal to reduce consumption-based emissions of greenhouse gases. The 2050 Climate Change Committee has recommended that the government develops such a goal for domestic and international emissions (NOU, 2023: 25, p. 221).

Norwegian municipalities are important service providers for education, care, and renovation, with many employees and users. Through public procurements they have the opportunity to influence suppliers of products and services. They manage a large and varied building stock; they are often one of the major builders in the local community; and they own car and machinery fleets. Many Norwegian municipalities also have shares in power plants and can therefore influence energy supply and energy use in their region. The Planning and Building Act assigns to the municipalities a comprehensive and long-term planning responsibility. Through land-use planning and decisions about the location of industry, housing and infrastructure, municipalities can influence the scale of emissions from transport and stationary energy use. As an administrative body, the municipalities also manage the implementation of various types of legislation that target construction and waste. Moreover, they manage support schemes for the agriculture sector, which affect the development of energy consumption in that sector. Municipalities finally play a role in providing information and campaigns to inspire people to change their behaviours in a more environmentally friendly way.

Some Norwegian municipalities have started to work on consumption-based emission accounting at the municipal level (Miljødirektoratet, 2022). This is important because the mentioned national datasets do not include direct emissions from the production and transport of goods and services consumed within the municipalities.

The extent to which Norwegian municipalities have taken actions seeking to reduce consumption-based emissions varies. Some have made plans and strategies targeting reduced consumption (Oslo Municipality, no date a) and use the possibility of influencing such emissions via procurements (Oslo Municipality, no date b). It has become relatively common to establish circular economy projects, which aim to get goods from the waste stations back into the economy (e.g., Christensen, 2024). Some ‘best practice’ examples such as Vollebekk Fabrikker have attracted considerable attention internationally (e.g., Urban Resource Center, 2019, p. 12). There are also initiatives targeting the building sector (Padriv Oslo, no date).

Statistics Sweden publishes yearly environmental accounts concerning consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants.

nitrous oxide; sulphur dioxide; nitrogen oxides; carbon monoxid; non-methane volatile organic compounds; ammonia; particles < 10 µm; particles < 2,5 µm. KVALITETSDEKLARATION Miljöräkenskaper – Miljöpåverkan från konsumtion

The latest publication covers the period 2008–2021. Methodological development for the national accounts of consumption-based environmental pressures has taken place in collaboration between state agencies and research institutions within the PRINCE program. The general historic trend for consumption-based GHGs and other air pollutants is towards lowered environmental pressures (see figures 9 and 10). Swedish consumption-based GHG footprints in 2021 was approximately 8 tonnes per person and year, which makes a 29% reduction in per-capita emissions since 2008 (SEPA, 2023). However, it has been questioned if Sweden's consumption-based GHG emissions are decreasing in line with a fairly distributed Paris-compliant carbon budget (Vogel and Hickel, 2023).

Figure 9. Consumption-based GHG emissions, tonnes CO₂e per person and year (Statistics Sweden, 2024)

Figure 10. Environmental impact of household consumption (air pollutants) (Statistics Sweden, 2024)

The overall Swedish environmental policy objective, the so-called Generational Goal is to “hand over to the next generation a society in which the major environmental problems in Sweden have been solved, without increasing environmental and health problems outside Sweden’s borders” (SEPA, 2024). The objective to limit environmental pressure outside Sweden's boarders has since 2010 been the primary justification for developing consumption-based accounting and policy measures. In 2022 the cross-parliamentary Environmental Objectives Committee (SOU 2022:15) proposed a consumption-based GHG emissions target for 2045, designed as to be fulfilled primarily by meeting the territorial target, in combination with lowered imported emissions as the exporting countries deliver on their Nationally Determined Contributions. Moreover, it is proposed that “international climate benefits” could be used as flexibility to reach the target, which includes negative emissions, the use of international credits from investment abroad, and climate benefits associated with Swedish exports. Climate benefits from exports is a novel measure (which the committee proposed should be developed further), estimating the emissions avoided if Swedish exports “push out” goods with a relatively higher climate impact.

Several public referrals to the proposed target design have questioned whether it would in fact raise Sweden's ambitions and call for additional policy measures (Remissammanställning, 2022). In terms of policy, the Environmental Objectives Committee proposes a strengthened framework for public procurement and increased international commitment, but refrains from proposing further policy, such as demand-oriented measures. The Environmental Objectives Committee also proposes an alternative mitigation pathway, in line with the aim to keep global warming below 1.5 °C, which could be reached by increased international climate benefits, but which alternatively could necessitate behavioural changes (Larsson et al., 2022).

Sweden does not currently have any quantified targets for air pollutants or other environmental pressures outside the country's borders. In response to the proposed Swedish consumption-based climate target, the Swedish Chemical Agency points out the interdependence between a climate policy and other environmental pressures, with possible positive and negative synergies. The Swedish Chemical Agency calls for multiple environmental indicators to be developed and monitored in combination.

A number of Swedish municipalities, regions, and county administrative boards have adopted local consumption-based GHG emissions targets. A common formulation for these targets among the groups is to cut emission by half by 2030. At present, national statistical services do not offer consumption-based emissions data on municipal or regional level, which has been requested by several Swedish municipalities. However, recently the Consumption-Compass Project has published data which breaks down the national statistics on a postcode level (SEI, 2024). Such disaggregation of consumption-based data on the local level could facilitate policy action, but disaggregation is also associated with more uncertainties of the data quality. Further publications of the Consumption-compass are dependent on continued funding. Municipal and regional policy measures are outside the scope of this mapping, but previous work in this area exists. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has, for example, directed a program with the aim of mapping such policy initiatives (André et al., 2021). Local governance has a central role in reducing consumption-based emission, but as a number of referrals to the Environmental Objectives Committee state, such work needs to be supported by statistical services and national governance to be successful.

The country descriptions show ambitions to tackle and decrease consumption-based emissions across the Nordic countries. However, the quality of the published statistics to support such efforts varies. Comparability between the Nordic countries’ own statistics is low, as a result of the lack of standards for collecting and publishing data. Nevertheless, the Eurostat data is sufficient to follow and compare general trends across the Nordics.

Ambition levels are also difficult to compare as only Sweden, Norway and Denmark have proposals for quantified consumption-based GHG emissions targets. As political discussions unfold, it is far from clear what new possible targets and institutional frameworks might emerge. In addition to the political discussions, there are also continuous academic discussions on the merits and drawbacks associated with integrating targets for consumption-based GHG emissions within national climate policy frameworks.

Due to differing emission reduction ambitions among countries, implementing policies solely aimed at producers can pose challenges such as carbon leakage and domestic job loss. To address this issue, policies targeting consumption (which treat domestic activities and imports equally) can be employed. A potential first step for such policies is to adopt national consumption-based targets. However, to avoid destabilizing the current territorial-based target regime within the UNFCCC, consumption-based targets should complement, rather than replace, territorial targets (Morfeldt et al., 2023).

While discussions continue concerning the role consumption-based GHG emissions should have in national climate policy frameworks, we argue that clarified ambitions are desirable. Beyond the aspiration of reduced consumption-based emissions, the formation of objectives which specify the pace of mitigation or total cumulative emissions is advisable, to facilitate the evaluation of overall policy success or failure.