Government climate funding cuts are under fire

The budget is a fatal blow to the environment on a broad front. There are discounts on many points and they are big discounts. I’ve never seen anything like this before, says Mikael Carlsson, a lecturer in environmental sciences at Uppsala University, and I’ve followed environmental and climate policy for nearly thirty years.

Among the areas that have seen a significant reduction in this year’s budget are environmental monitoring, marine and aquatic environment measures, valuable nature protection and caring for valuable nature, with provisions in some cases halving in 2023 and will continue to decline during the tenure of the position.

Environmental Monitoring Means Among other things, to measure the presence of environmental toxins and to monitor the evolution of threatened species and habitats. Both that and valuable nature protection are considered by researchers to be important to preserving natural values, not least when biodiversity is conserved.

Environmental monitoring is very important for tracking the evolution of the state of the environment. Swedish environmental monitoring is one of the best available and is based in part on a decades-old series of measurements, says Mikael Karlsson.

It is supported by the Director-General of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Bjorn Reisinger.

Environmental monitoring is the backbone of environmental action. It is a prerequisite to be able to take measures on a scientific basis, to follow Swedish environmental goals and our entire reporting to the European Union. This is the piece that worries me the most at the moment.

200 million Swedish kronor has been allocated in the budget To restore the wetlands, which was presented as a climate investment a few days ago by Environment and Climate Minister Romina Bourmakhtari (left). But this amount was taken from a reduction of just over 900 million Swedish kronor in the “Valuable Nature Conservation” allocation.

Plus, 200 million isn’t an increase. This year, $325 million will be used for wetlands. Next year it will be 100 million, with the investment promised by the environment minister of 200, the total will be 300 million crowns, down 25 million compared to this year, says Michael Karlsson.

In the section where the government reports on development during the mandate period for the spending area that includes “general conservation of the environment and nature”, it appears that it plans to cut the total amount by more than half until 2025. From SEK 23.7 billion for 2022 to just under 10 billion Swedish krona in 2025.

– There are investments here and there amounting to 10 million, but at the same time reductions are announced during the term of 10 billion, a thousand times. Mikael Carlson says it’s almost too good to be bad at environmental and climate policy.

The budget comes at the same time With the COP27 climate meeting taking place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and just one month before the main United Nations meeting on biodiversity conservation, COP15 is being held in Montreal.

The sharp decline now being made in the environmental sphere will have serious consequences for our ability to achieve the 1.5 degree target. The reduction will also significantly affect our ability to live up to our national and international environmental and biodiversity conservation goals, says Gustav Lind, WWF Secretary-General in a press release.

Also the Nature Conservancy very critical:

This is a major setback for climate policy. The policies of the government and the Swedish Democrats are seen as leading to significant increases in emissions. A third of the repair space in the budget is spent on subsidizing gasoline, diesel and automobiles. The money is taken from the railroad to the road. The budget lacks effective measures that produce results and offset significant increases in emissions. It’s deeply troubling and totally unacceptable, says Karen Lixen, general secretary of the Society for the Conservation of Nature.