Co-creating evidence-based business roadmaps and policy solutions for enhancing coastal-rural collaboration and synergies

Achieving the carbon-neutrality goal by 2045 in Sweden

Stockholm University, the lead partner for the Swedish MAL3 case in COASTAL, has developed a systems breakdown accounting method to assess the urban carbon cycle in the Stockholm County – the key metropolitan area within the MAL3 coastal region – and identify implications for achieving the carbon-neutrality goal by 2045 set at the national level.

The method facilitates greater understanding of the complex interactions within and between systems involved in the urban carbon cycle, and provides insights into the role of urban green-blue areas in carbon sequestration. Therefore, the method can be used to identify ways in which human societies can adapt their interactions to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions from urban regions. For the Stockholm County, inland surface waters and inner archipelago waters are identified as considerable sources of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, due to the decreased green areas and thus the efficiency of carbon sequestration by vegetation in this growing urban region. This highlights the necessity of incorporating green-blue spaces (e.g. wetlands and green roofs) into spatial planning to support adaptive urban management and offset projected net emissions in many growing cities around the world.

Read the full open-access published article here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2021.100296