Political Initiatives

The Swedish Parliament has adopted a climate policy framework to establish order and clarity in climate policy. The framework is based on an agreement within the parliamentary Environmental Objectives Committee (Miljömålsberedningen). It is the most important climate reform in Swedish history and provides long-term conditions for businesses and society to carry out the transition needed to solve the climate challenge. This gives Sweden a law requiring each government to conduct climate policy based on the climate goals adopted by the Parliament. The government must also clearly report on how the work to achieve the goals is progressing. For the first time, Sweden will have long-term climate goals beyond 2020. This reform is a central part of the effort for Sweden to live up to the Paris Agreement.

There is great potential to reduce emissions and promote innovative and climate-smart solutions through public procurement, for example, through innovation procurement. The government intends to review how the climate policy framework can be implemented in public procurement, focusing on procurements with significant climate impacts. The Swedish National Agency for Public Procurement has an important role in the climate effort.

Goal 6 – An environmentally responsible public procurement indicates that procurement should be used as a strategic tool to achieve environmental targets, reduce environmental impact from a lifecycle perspective, and contribute to the transition to a circular economy.

In the National Public Procurement Strategy, it is noted that although the price of an individual procurement may be higher if environmental requirements are set, the overall societal cost may be lower in the long run.

Read more about the National Public Procurement strategy on the National Agency for Public Procurement's website ( External link, opens in new window.website is in Swedish External link, opens in new window.) External link, opens in new window..

Introducing a requirement for climate declarations is a step in the state's governance towards reducing the climate impact of buildings during the construction.

The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket) has, on behalf of the government, developed a proposal for a roadmap for the development of climate declarations after 2022. The National Board's task includes the following:

• Develop an open database with relevant climate data that can be used to calculate the climate impact of buildings from a lifecycle perspective (the plan is for it to be in place by January 2021).
• Develop a climate declaration register that can be used when the requirement for climate declarations for buildings comes into effect (the plan is for it to be in place by January 2022).
• Develop informational and guidance material (this will be ongoing until the new law is in place and for some time afterward).
• Develop a plan for the continued development of climate declarations to include the entire lifecycle and cover threshold values for climate impact (a report will be submitted to the government in June 2020).

The development of a climate data database should be carried out in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) and the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket).

The National Board of Housing, Building and Planning is also working on developing proposals for regulations on climate declarations for the construction of buildings (the consultation of the regulations is planned for 2021).

Fossil-Free Sweden is a platform for dialogue and collaboration between companies, municipalities, and other types of stakeholders who want to make Sweden free from fossil fuels. The initiative gathers knowledge and commitment from all sectors of society and works to highlight the climate efforts happening across the country. Fossil-Free Sweden works to accelerate the transition not only because it is possible but also because it is economically viable.

The initiative currently gathers over 400 stakeholders and is open to all who support the declaration that has been developed. The stakeholders involved in the initiative share the belief that the world must become fossil-free and that Sweden should lead the way in this effort. Through the declaration, stakeholders also commit to showcasing concrete measures for reducing emissions.

Svante Axelsson is the national coordinator for Fossil-Free Sweden. He serves as the link between stakeholders and the government to remove obstacles and create conditions for faster emission reductions. The work also involves spreading the narrative and vision of a fossil-free society, thus highlighting the opportunities in the transition. The third part is to develop concrete challenges for companies, industries, and sectors that accelerate development.

The national coordinator works on behalf of the Ministry of Environment and Energy. Read more about Fossil-Free Sweden here External link, opens in new window..

The Swedish National Agency for Public Procurement provides a wide range of services within the procurement support area, as outlined on their website. This includes, among other things, the agency's criteria library with a so-called environmental target search and the recently launched environmental spend analysis, both of which address environmental issues from a lifecycle perspective and circular economy.

The criteria library of the National Agency for Public Procurement contains up to 600 separate sustainability criteria proposals for most commonly occurring product groups within the procurement area, offered via an easy-to-use and open search system (Wizard).

The environmental target search aims to give a municipality the opportunity to identify which environmental target a particular procurement can impact, to describe the extent to which their procurements can contribute to achieving the environmental targets and goals. It is based on the environmental aspects identified for different product groups and links this with the indicators that various agencies have specified for monitoring the environmental targets.

The environmental spend analysis is a new way to demonstrate the climate impact of public sector purchases and can be used as a strategic tool in procurement. It is a purchasing analysis in which various environmental factors have been integrated. Environmental spend analyses are conducted using statistics from so-called input-output analyses of environmental burdens and general data on the environmental impact of products. The purpose is to investigate the environmental impact that purchases within the public sector may have, and also to examine the extent and scale of the environmental impact of different types of purchases in relation to others.

A spend analysis shows how much has been spent on (paid out to) different suppliers. The payments may correspond to different purchases. In a spend analysis, a structure is built with different types of purchases called categories or purchase categories. Environmental spend analyses have so far presented results on the environmental impact of procurement work within municipalities and county councils.

The delegation has the following responsibilities:

• Develop a strategy for the delegation’s work on transitioning to a circular and bio-based economy. This strategy should include how the transition can be stimulated at various levels of society. The delegation will base its work, among other things, on the report on circular economy (SOU 2017:22).
• Serve as a contact point between relevant actors to facilitate the work and create synergies.
• Identify barriers and counterproductive regulatory measures, needs for education and information, and provide advice and propose cost-effective measures to the government.
• Act as a knowledge center and monitor developments by gathering good examples and information about ongoing significant initiatives and facilitate effective collaboration among them.
• Appoint a reference group with relevant actors who, with their expertise and experience, will support the delegation’s work. The composition of the reference group may vary depending on the area and issue. The chair of the delegation will convene the reference group.

According to the government’s assignment, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth has prepared a secretariat to support the Delegation for a Circular Economy. The secretariat is responsible for:

• Preparing materials for meetings and organizing them.
• Ensuring coordination between relevant working groups, networks, and other relevant actors, and the work within the Delegation for a Circular Economy.
• Disseminating knowledge from the work of the Delegation for a Circular Economy to relevant actors, both externally and to the members of the Delegation for Circular Economy.

Read more about the Delegation for Circular Economy at delegationcirkularekonomi.se ( External link, opens in new window.website is in Swedish External link, opens in new window.). External link, opens in new window.

Climate change, digitalization, health, and skills supply are critical. In this context, the government created five thematic collaboration programs with the aim of identifying innovative solutions to common societal challenges and simultaneously strengthening Sweden’s global innovation and competitiveness.

The collaboration programs bring together businesses, academia, civil society, and public actors to jointly prioritize what needs to be done regarding competence, decision-making power, resources, and networks to find innovative solutions that address societal challenges. The work has involved a somewhat new approach where policy sets thematic societal challenges with overarching frameworks within innovation work and thereby a challenge-oriented focus.

Several working groups based on prioritized areas have been established, one of which deals with procurement. This working group has recently begun its work.