KTH Climate Action Centre and Future Earth host fully booked seminar on climate science and policy

Co-moderated by KTH Climate Action Centre's Åsa Persson and Future Earth Global Hub Director Wendy Broadgate, the presentation of the latest edition of the 10 New Insights in Climate Science  report brought together scientists, policymakers, business leaders, and civil society leaders to explore how new climate science can better inform decision-making and guide transformative change. "The toughening of the climate for climate action," noted Åsa at the opening of the event, "makes it especially important to have such discussions."

The KTH researchers on the panel highlighted the need to focus efforts on exploring how regulation and mitigation interventions can be designed to simultaneously address different socio-environmental goals. For instance, relatively small investments to ensure access to clean energy for cooking in Africa could have a considerable positive impact not only on emissions reductions but also on public health, said Francesco Fuso Nerini. Kenneth Möllersten noted the importance of finding effective ways to communicate the scale of transformation needed to transition to a net zero economy, while Karin Bradley pointed to the need to combine a pragmatic, solutions-oriented approach with more independent, critical and curiosity driven research.

The stakeholder panellists, for their part, emphasised a strong advocacy within the Swedish private sector for more ambitious policy measures and targets. Such ambition – stated Miriam Münnich Vass of Teknikföretagen – is essential for safeguarding competitiveness and resilience. Researchers were called upon to help establish standards that define the obligations of states, measure their actions and ultimately hold them accountable. They were also asked to help clarify the connections between climate change and other adverse societal impacts, including those arising from supply chains where impacts beyond those immediately visible can often be difficult to assess. “What is really needed”, stated Annika Jacobson of the City of Stockholm, “is applied research to ensure climate solutions are fit for purpose, and collaborations between researchers and practitioners.”

The panellists further emphasised the strong need to showcase context-specific emissions pathways that integrate local and indigenous voices, and research that “dares to dream more” – in the words of Ida Edling, spokesperson and legal and scientific coordinator for the youth-led environmental association Aurora – breaking with current path dependencies.

A final key message, offered by Mattias Frumerie, Climate Ambassador and Head of Delegation to UNFCCC at Swedish Ministry of Climate and Enterprise, was the urgent need to consider how local and national level solutions can be supported: how can we scale up the many solutions that already exist on the market today? What do we need to do to ensure that new ones are created?

A moment of surprise occurred as the panel discussion was coming to an end. Prompted by a student question to stress that economic growth as a precondition for change is not working, Ida Edling received unexpected agreement from Luca De Lorenzo of the Nordic Investment Bank. “It’s clear that we need an alternative”, said Luca; “satisfaction value doesn’t have to be materialistic. But we do need to create an alternative before breaking with what we have.”