Sweden and The Greta Thunberg Effect

On 20 August 2018, a then 15 year old Greta Thunberg took her bicycle and began her first strike from school. She sat down outside the Swedish Parliament in central Stockholm, holding up a sign saying Skolstrejk för klimatet (School Strike for climate). The strike lasted every school day until the parliamentary elections in Sweden in early September. What began as a solo activist campaign, has now made her one of the most influential climate activists in the world and if not talk about the impact she has made of public awareness in such a short time.

Not the usual teenager

Greta and her fight for the climate and sustainable consumption have received a lot of attention globally. She has always referred to research and acted on the basis of evidence-based facts. Since her first school strike, Greta has not only created a climate movement, but also given renewed hope for a concerted effort for sustainable consumption. She has really reached out to world leaders and decision-makers and managed to engage children and young people all over the world. Together with other young activists the organization and movement Fridays For Future was created, where school students skip Friday classes to participate in demonstrations to demand action from political leaders to prevent climate change. She has made a huge impact in the UN, the US Congress and the European Parliament. One month before the EU election, Greta Thunberg was recognized and greeted by former US President Barack Obama. And just a month earlier, Time magazine named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people. And everywhere she goes, Greta Thunberg’s message is the same: Listen to the researchers, wake up and start acting now.

The “non reachable” climate policy goals

The results of her opinion work may not be easy to calculate, but the connections are still clear. The trend break and the now declining figures for aviation are easy to relate in terms of time. Greta Thunberg has made us aware in a way that has affected everything from our consumption and our travel habits. A much-needed trend break that no politician, no company, no technical invention has ever succeeded with or could ever achieve on such a large scale. The Greta Thunberg effect is the phenomenon where people are willing to take more action themselves and take collective action to address climate change.

But let’s look at the situation where Greta actually comes from, and the place where it all started, Sweden. As a part of the Swedish government, the Green Party has laid the largest environmental budget in Swedish history. They invest in public transport and organic food, protect more forests and the sea, build cycle paths and smart, green districts. They have reduced the tax on repairs and increased it on emissions. They have laid the foundation for a 100 percent renewable energy system, so that Sweden will be connected with high-speed trains and that the country will become the world’s first fossil-free welfare state.

As we all know and what Greta has taught us, all ecosystems are affected by climate change and an increasingly warmer climate has extensive consequences for the environment, and in this case for the Swedish natural environment. A changing climate affects the habitats of different species and populations risk disappearing completely, shrinking or moving. The problem is that the policies that Green Party has fought for and which now inspires the world, other parties in the Swedish government want to stop, cut down or prioritize away. The solutions to meet the climate threat are clear. But to cope with the climate, strong leadership is needed. Climate change is affecting life everywhere on earth. Rising sea levels, drought and shrinking resources today lead to conflicts, war and famine. The decisions our generation makes now are crucial to everyone’s common future.
We know that the climate crisis is here. The signals are clear and time is running out. But we do not act fast enough knowing this knowledge. With current policy, Sweden will not achieve the climate goals agreed between the government and the parliaments.

By 2045 at the latest, Sweden will have net zero emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, in order to subsequently achieve negative emissions. The target means that emissions of greenhouse gases from Swedish territory must be at least 85 percent lower in 2045 than emissions in 1990.

With the Green Party as a part of the government, Sweden has one of the world’s most ambitious climate laws, we have introduced a tax so that aviation starts to pay for its climate emissions and invests more than ever in building a sustainable society. But there is still a fight for both a national and global and radical climate policy.

“It proves you are never too small to make a difference,”

Even though many people say that there is no point in doing something, and there is already too late to act, Greta states: “… you are never too small to make a big difference”. And she has really proved it. Maybe, Greta’s fight and hard work for the environment will pay off in the election of 2022, and that we can believe change is possible so that it is possible to build a better society where we do not waste resources and where continents of plastic do not grow in the oceans. Greta has already made a huge impact to address the climate crisis in the whole world, so it is about time that her own home country uses her message as a motivator to make a big change in the society so that it’s possible to reach the goals of 2045.

Resources

• https://www.statkraft.com/newsroom/news-and-stories/archive/2020/country-series-sweden-global-leader-in-reducing-climate-impact/
• https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/greta-thunbergs-vag-fran-skolstrejkande-15-aring-till-ikon
• https://www.gp.se/fria-ord/lyssnar-inte-svenskarna-p%C3%A5-greta-thunberg-1.37660802
• https://www.mp.se/politik/valmanifest2018
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/26/greta-thunberg-teenager-on-a-global-mission-to-make-a-difference
• https://theconversation.com/greta-thunberg-effect-people-familiar-with-young-climate-activist-may-be-more-likely-to-act-154146