H. Orri Stéfansson: “Sweden does not have a moral free pass to keep causing emissions”

In the political debate about Sweden’s climate policy, some claim that the country shouldn’t take ambitious measures to reduce emissions, beacause the impact of Sweden’s emissions is insignificant compared to that of larger countries. But the fact that others may cause greater harm does not absolve Sweden of its own detrimental impacts, argues H. Orri Stéfansson in Forskning & Framsteg.

In a recent piece in the Swedish science magazine Forskning & Framsteg, H. Orri Stéfansson, researcher at the Mimir Center, recognizes that it is unlikely that a climate catastrophe can be avoided unless countries like the USA, China, and Russia diminish their emissions. However, this does not lead to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter what Sweden does on its own.

“The truth is that Sweden’s annual emissions are expected to cause several thousand premature deaths, most of them in the poor countries that are most vulnerable to climate change…This gives every politician and citizen strong moral reasons to reduce carbon emissions, even if Sweden doesn’t play a decisive role in avoiding a climate catastrophe.”

Regarding the claim that it is unreasonable to expect more of Sweden when so many other countries do less for the environment, Stéfansson argues that the fact that someone else harms a person does not justify one’s actions in harming that person. The same principle applies to states, and therefore the fact that other states’ emissions are more harmful than Sweden’s does not support the notion that the country’s climate policy should be less ambitious.

Read the whole article (in Swedish).