This year Climate Change Leadership was glad to co-host the conference with KlimatSekretariat and KlimatRikstag as organising partners together with Fackförbundet Vision.

The conference this year was a 3-day digital format, bringing together researchers, students, the public sector, civil society and others to explore the science and politics of climate change mitigation. This marked the second carbon budgets conference to be held in Sweden, and built on the work established by past Zennström Professor in Climate Change Leadership, Kevin Anderson, in designing carbon budgets for Swedish municipalities during his time in Uppsala.

Day 1 of the conference was held in English, and had a particular focus on research and questions at the interface of science and policy. It began with a keynote by Professor of Energy and Climate Kevin Anderson  presenting on moving from net-zero to real-zero, and how we can use carbon budgets to frame Paris-compliant mitigation policies.

The day continued with a series of speed talks on the science and politics of rapid mitigation. The talks ran as follows:

  • Christopher Jones (Tyndall Centre) on ‘International outlooks and Translating the Paris Agreement into local climate change goals’
  • Sanna Gunnarsson (KTH) and Derek Garfield (Uppsala University) about municipal and regional carbon budgets as a tool for local climate transitions
  • Johan Gärdebo (Linköping University) on Swedish Just Transition and its relationship to Union Workers
  • Mikael Karlsson (Climate Change Leadership, Uppsala University) on barriers and drivers when using carbon budgets for societal transformations

Following the speed talks, participants had the opportunity to join breakout rooms with one of the speakers:

The day concluded with a panel discussion exploring the opportunities and limitations of carbon budgets and science-based approaches to societal transition. The panel was moderated by CCL affiliated PhD Isak Stoddard and the following guests:

  • Kevin Anderson (Professor of Energy and Climate with joint chairs at the Universities of Manchester, Uppsala and Bergen)
  • Carly McLachlan (Deputy Director on Tyndall Centre)
  • Stefania Barca (Zennström Professor in Climate Change Leadership, Uppsala University)
  • Martin Wetterstedt (researcher at Uppsala University and the Mälardalen Energy Agency)

Day 2 and 3 were in Swedish, with Day 2 focusing on questions of local and regional governance, and Day 3 on the roles of civil society.

To learn more about the conference, access presenter slides and more video content visit https://en.co2-budget.com/