Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Four sustainability goals in a Swedish low-growth/degrowth context

Fauré, Eléonore ; Svenfelt, Åsa ; Finnveden, Göran and Hornborg, Alf LU (2016) In Sustainability 8(11).
Abstract
Continual environmental degradation and an unfair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits are two great challenges for humanity. Economic growth is often taken for granted when planning for the future. However, it is often argued that maintaining economic growth conflicts with keeping human activities adjusted to ecological boundaries and finite resources, at least for the more-developed countries. With this paper, we present sustainability goals for building and planning in Sweden to be achieved by 2050 in a context of limited or even negative economic growth. These goals should ensure that all groups in society have sufficient resources and a good life within planetary boundaries. We select four goals in a participatory... (More)
Continual environmental degradation and an unfair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits are two great challenges for humanity. Economic growth is often taken for granted when planning for the future. However, it is often argued that maintaining economic growth conflicts with keeping human activities adjusted to ecological boundaries and finite resources, at least for the more-developed countries. With this paper, we present sustainability goals for building and planning in Sweden to be achieved by 2050 in a context of limited or even negative economic growth. These goals should ensure that all groups in society have sufficient resources and a good life within planetary boundaries. We select four goals in a participatory process: two environmental goals related to climate change and land use and two social goals related to welfare and participation. Our results show that achieving the environmental goals will require significant reductions of Sweden’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and land use compared to today’s levels. Regarding the social goals, these are, in many aspects, reasonably well fulfilled in Sweden today, although disparities remain between groups of citizens. The main challenge, however, is to ensure that these goals are fulfilled even within environmental limits and if economic growth should halt (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Sustainability
volume
8
issue
11
article number
1080
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85000392922
  • wos:000389316200003
ISSN
2071-1050
DOI
10.3390/su8111080
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4ad24df1-4629-428c-b36a-6d8c37a6526c
date added to LUP
2016-10-29 09:49:31
date last changed
2022-03-01 08:34:47
@article{4ad24df1-4629-428c-b36a-6d8c37a6526c,
  abstract     = {{Continual environmental degradation and an unfair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits are two great challenges for humanity. Economic growth is often taken for granted when planning for the future. However, it is often argued that maintaining economic growth conflicts with keeping human activities adjusted to ecological boundaries and finite resources, at least for the more-developed countries. With this paper, we present sustainability goals for building and planning in Sweden to be achieved by 2050 in a context of limited or even negative economic growth. These goals should ensure that all groups in society have sufficient resources and a good life within planetary boundaries. We select four goals in a participatory process: two environmental goals related to climate change and land use and two social goals related to welfare and participation. Our results show that achieving the environmental goals will require significant reductions of Sweden’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and land use compared to today’s levels. Regarding the social goals, these are, in many aspects, reasonably well fulfilled in Sweden today, although disparities remain between groups of citizens. The main challenge, however, is to ensure that these goals are fulfilled even within environmental limits and if economic growth should halt}},
  author       = {{Fauré, Eléonore and Svenfelt, Åsa and Finnveden, Göran and Hornborg, Alf}},
  issn         = {{2071-1050}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{11}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Sustainability}},
  title        = {{Four sustainability goals in a Swedish low-growth/degrowth context}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su8111080}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/su8111080}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}