Swedish Initiatives to Promote Sustainable Urban Development

Swedish-Polish Sustainable Energy Platform conference on Smart Cities - Energy Efficiency in Sustainable Urban Development

November 5, 2014

Björn Svensby, Swedish Energy Agency

Sustainable cities

Governmental initiatives

• The Delegation for Sustainable Cities

• Sustainable municipality

• The Platform for Sustainable Cities

The Delegation for Sustainable Cities• 2008-2012

• Two major objectives:

– Financial support to sustainable urban projects (9 investment projects and 89 planning projects)

– Arena for knowledge sharing, networks, discussion and debate

• Total budget of 357 000 000 SEK (≈ 35 700 000 euro)

• Delegation members from governmental organs, municipalities, academy, industry and commerce (15 appointed members in total)

Fifteen barriers to sustainable urban development1. Sustainability visions have not been integrated in different policies2. Values linked to quality of life and urban appeals are not given sufficient weight 3. Unsustainable lifestyles and behaviors contribute to high carbon emissions4. Increased social and spatial division of cities5. Insufficient dialogue with citizens about city development 6. Stovepipe thinking complicates holistic solutions 7. Lack of coordination within and between different levels 8. One-sided and short-term project focus hinders long-term sightedness9. Lack of capacity and expertise to provide leadership for complex, cross-sectoral processes 10. Lack of incentives for sustainable decisions11. Lock-in in hard changing and costly structures 12. Insufficient investments in vital infrastructure linked to urban development and needs 13. Insufficient investments in knowledge development and pilot projects 14. Lack of effective business models 15. Conservative government procurement rules

Sustainable municipality

• Programme (in three phases) 2003 – 2014.

• Cooperation between the Swedish Energy Agency and 37 municipalities (out of 290 in total)

• Two main focus areas:

– Sustainable local economic growth

– Sustainable urban planning

• 10 network groups based on the interests of the participating municipalities

• A great deal of focus on process changes in the municipal organisations

Platform for Sustainable Cities

• Governmental assignment to five central agencys:

– Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket)

– Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten)

– Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket)

– Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket)

– Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket)

• Started in 2014 and will be active until further notice

Platform for Sustainable Cities

• Objective: – increased cooperation

– Increased coordination

– Increased exchange of experiences

– Increased sharing and development of knowledge

• No funding of projects

• Conference in Stockholm 4th of December

Tomorrow…

• New government in Sweden since elections in September.

• Minister for housing and city development

• KLOKT-programme (Klimakutt lokalt gjennom kommunale tiltak) aimed at municipalities will (probably) come, how it would look and work is not known at present

• The Platform is ongoing

Klicka på ikonen för att lägga till en bild

Thank you for listeningThanks

Thank you for listening!

bjorn.svensby@swedishenergyagency.se+46 (0)16 – 544 24 54www.swedishenergyagency.se