Who pays the environmental price for Sweden's quality of life? Which product groups consumed in Sweden have the biggest environmental impacts, and where?
The PRINCE project, led by Statistics Sweden, is using a groundbreaking integration of MRIO modeling with national environmental accounts to develop indicators of consumption impacts along Sweden's global supply chains. Land-use change impacts, resources, emissions, chemicals footprint and more.
Learn more at www.prince-project.se.
Implemented in
- Europe and Central Asia
- Sweden
Led by
Sectors of activity
Environmental Services, Education, Waste, incl. Chemicals, Food & Beverage, Public Procurement
Type of initiative
Policy Frameworks & Tools, Research, Analysis, Assessment
Type of lead actor
Government / public sector
Start date
30/09/2015
End date
28/02/2018
Submitted on:
10/02/2017Objectives
"A society in which the major environmental problems in Sweden have been solved … without increasing environmental and health problems outside Sweden’s borders"
This is what Sweden has committed to deliver to the next generation. But how do know if we are on track?
Consumption is one of the main routes by which economies impact natural ecosystems. The impacts might come through extracting raw materials; particular types of land use or deforestation; emissions of hazardous chemicals or greenhouse gases during production; the water and energy used in manufacturing; transport emissions; or many other ways.
Sweden keeps good data on the environmental performance of its farms, factories and transportation system. But much of what is consumed in the country is imported. Sweden’s environmental commitment means that we need to keep track of the environmental pressures linked to imported goods and services too.
The PRINCE project is developing a new framework for monitoring the environmental impacts linked to Swedish consumption – both inside and outside Sweden’s borders – using the latest modelling and statistical techniques. PRINCE – for Policy-Relevant Indicators for National Consumption and Environment – responds to a call from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) for a new monitoring framework that:
* uses a sound and repeatable methodology
* includes indicators for a wide range of environmental pressures
* provides a sound basis for policy decisions.
The three-year project aims to deliver a new framework, including indicators for several environmental pressures rarely monitored at macro level, along with a baseline monitoring report and case studies.
PRINCE is supported by a research grant administered by the EPA and SwAM.
Activities
As collected through the One Planet Reporting
Output level
Knowledge resource and technical tool
-
Prince project report
Prince project report
Regions
Europe and Central Asia
Lead organization
results of the project
Objective
to be added later
Achievements
to be added later
-
PRINCE Final Report
"Environmental Impacts from Swedish Consumption: New Indicators for Follow-up"
PRINCE Final Report "Environmental Impacts from Swedish Consumption: New Indicators for Follow-up"
Regions
Europe and Central Asia
Lead organization
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
Objective
The final report for the PRINCE project, "Environmental impacts from Swedish consumption: New indicators for follow-up", published by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, presents new indicators of environmental impacts from private and public-sector consumption as well as investments, including both impacts inside Sweden and those in the countries and regions where products consumed in Sweden are produced.
Achievements
The new results show that around two-thirds of the emissions of greenhouse gases and particulate matter occurred outside Sweden in 2014. As well as Sweden, emissions were in large major countries like China, Russia, Germany and the USA, but also in many other countries that Sweden imports from directly or indirectly. The model developed to generate the new indicators uses statistics from SCB on economic activity and environmental impacts in Sweden with the international MRIO model Exiobase 3, which links environmental impacts to economic activity in the global economy. This makes it possible to estimate environmental impacts along Sweden's supply chains. Among the results, the project confirms the findings of earlier studies that consumption of food and drink, transport and investments in construction and infrastructure account for large shares of nearly all the emissions of GHGs and air pollutants measured, and that use of fossil fuels are a key factor beyond a large share of consumption impacts. The report also includes a chapter on development of indicators for use and emissions of hazardous chemical products. "In this project we've developed broad indicators that instead of looking at individual chemicals give a general picture of the use of hazardous chemical products. A large share of chemical use and emissions happens outside Sweden, in the EU and beyond. That shows we need new tools to work towards sustainable consumption and production," says Göran Finnveden, professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, who led work in subproject 4. "The research results are an important resource for follow-up of the national environmental goals, especially the Generational Goal," says Anita Lundstöm of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. "Naturvårdsverket (the Swedish EPA) will work further with these results. The goal will be to develop tools that Swedish government agencies can use to follow-up on the environmental burden imposed by Swedish consumption."
Impact and Results
The PRINCE indicators will break down local and international environmental pressures from consumption according to:
* up to 200 product groups consumed in Sweden
* consumer categories (household, government, capital)
* 44 countries and 5 RoW groupings.
The PRINCE model is designed to be as easy as possible to update, allowing continuous monitoring.
The PRINCE indicators ´will provide a sound basis for policies to further reduce consumption impacts in diverse policy areas – e.g. in consumption, trade, industry, energy, development.
Another aim of the project is to inspire and help other countries to follow Sweden's leadership in this area. The project team will produce a range of academic papers, briefs and reports elucidating the methodologies developed under PRINCE.
Next steps and how to get involved
Please check the PRINCE website www.prince-project.se for more information about the project and the latest blogs, news and publications.