Swedish emissions cause death and hunger 

If everyone lived like the richest 1% of Swedes, the carbon budget left to keep humanity from exceeding 1.5 degrees of warming would run out in six months - with catastrophic consequences. And the combined emissions of Swedes have already caused devastating consequences. Oxfam estimates that Sweden's emissions are causing reduced harvests that could have fed half a million people a year.  

Image of fir trees. Photo: Canva. The village of Al-Waht in Yemen was once a thriving agricultural community, but the farmland is now devastated. Photo: Saleh Hayyan, Oxfam

Sweden is a small country, but has historically high emissions - Sweden's share of historical emissions in the world is more than double our share of the world population. Current policies mean that emissions are currently increasing when the opposite should be true. In a new report, Oxfam Sweden has calculated a selection of the warming impacts that Swedes' historical emissions have already caused, and are projected to cause in the future. The hardest hit by the consequences are low-income earners and people in low and lower middle-income countries. 

"Oxfam's new report reveals serious and deadly consequences of Sweden's emissions. For example, we estimate that Sweden's consumption-based emissions between 1990 and 2019 will lead to reduced harvests that could have fed over half a million people a year from now until 2050."

Mira Alestig, report author and climate equality expert, Oxfam Sweden

All indications are that the world is heading towards 2.5-3 degrees of warming by the turn of the century, with major consequences for life on Earth. Extreme heat threatens people's homes and risks making places uninhabitable, people lose livelihoods, and inequality increases.   

"Sweden as a country has a great historical responsibility. Oxfam estimates that Sweden would need to set aside up to SEK 24 billion per year to compensate for the climate damage caused by Swedish emissions in low- and middle-income countries. But not all Swedes bear the same responsibility. As Oxfam has previously shown, the richest people, countries and companies are fueling the climate crisis at a rapid pace. The richest have a double responsibility to both rapidly reduce their emissions, and pay for the suffering they cause."

Astrid Nilsson Lewis, report author and climate equality expert, Oxfam Sweden

The total cost of the losses and damage caused by climate change is astronomical. Sweden and other rich countries have a high historical bill and continued high emissions will make the bill grow. Sweden is also the only country in the Nordic region that has not pledged any support to the new fund for damages and losses. 

"Sweden is a global brake pad. The Swedish government must take its responsibility and allocate funds to the fund for losses and damages, and invest in an equitable and fair climate transition. It is time that the richest people and countries that are responsible for emissions also help pay for the adaptation and transition. One of Oxfam's proposals is therefore a new wealth tax, which would both reduce emissions from the richest and generate financing for the climate transition."

Astrid Nilsson Lewis, report author and climate equality expert, Oxfam Sweden

About the study 

The research underlying the report quantifies the responsibility of the world's richest for selected climate damages due to global warming. By combining physical climate models and empirical models that calculate the effect of emissions, we first assess the degree of warming attributable to emissions by the rich and then assess the damage that warming causes. We examine (1) excess mortality due to heat (2) crop losses and (3) economic losses. The research has been carried out by researchers from Concordia University and Universitat de Barcelona, Dartmouth College, Columbia University, in collaboration with Oxfam. 

The analysis is based on the consumption-based emissions of the world's richest people, calculated in relation to income by the Stockholm Environment Institute and Oxfam. 

The estimates presented are conservative and based on 2 degrees of warming. The analysis only considers historical emissions over a limited time period (between 1990 and 2019) and only considers the consequences of the temperature increase itself. Consequences caused by other climate-related impacts such as floods, hurricanes and civil unrest are in addition to the damages estimated here. Equally important is the fact that the damages and losses on which the analysis focuses are by no means a complete representation of the many losses and damages experienced by people, which are often not even quantifiable. One can mention, for example, intangible damages such as loss of cultural heritage and traditions.