How much do we emit, and where does the electricity come from?
Short answer: Greenhouse gas emissions within Sweden's borders were 4.5 tonnes per resident in 2024, almost half the level of 1990. Transport accounts for more than a third. In 2025, 40 percent of the electricity came from hydropower, 27 percent from nuclear and 23 percent from wind, which has grown elevenfold since 2010. Over the last ten years the country has on average been 1.8 degrees warmer than in 1961 to 1990. 35 percent of new cars in 2025 were electric, but only 9 percent of all cars on the road.
Electricity prices, exports and who decides: The electricity price. Oil, charging and what ten kilometres cost: Electric cars. The forest carbon sink and felling: Forests and the forest industry. On the map: Energy and forestry, Climate, Cars and traffic. The arbitration over nuclear power, coal and oil: Investment protection and ISDS.
Greenhouse gases per resident and sector.
Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per resident and year, emissions that occur within the municipality's borders. International aviation and shipping, and what we consume but is made abroad, are not counted. A municipality with a large factory or power plant gets high figures regardless of how its residents live. Municipalities are available for 1990, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and every year from 2020; Sweden every year.
Production by source and where the electricity goes.
Terawatt hours per year for the whole country, net production. Thermal power is combined heat and power in district heating plants and industry plus condensing and gas turbines, mostly fuelled by biomass. Use is final consumption within the country: industry, housing (including holiday homes and own solar power) and everything else such as services, transport and district heating, plus grid losses. The difference from production is mainly exports.
What electricity costs in the four bidding zones.
Annual average of households' electricity retail price on a variable contract, öre per kilowatt hour excluding energy tax, VAT and grid fee. Full years only; 2021 is missing because one month is absent from the statistics. Before the bidding zones there was one price for the whole country. North of the Dalälven river (SE1 and SE2) there is more production than consumption, so the price is often lower there.
Electricity produced and used in the municipality.
How much warmer it has become since 1961 to 1990.
The year's mean temperature minus the mean for 1961 to 1990 at the same place, in degrees. Above zero is warmer than then. Single years jump around a lot; it is the trend over several years that says something about the climate.
How large a share of cars run on electricity.
Electric cars are cars that run on electricity only. Plug-in also counts plug-in hybrids. New cars are counted in the municipality where the owner is registered, so companies with many leased cars push up the figures in their home municipality. Before 2017 electric cars were so few that the share is close to zero but not zero. The share in traffic exists for Sweden from 2001 and per municipality from 2010, new cars from 2006.
Carbon tax, biofuels and electricity.
Sweden's greenhouse gas emissions were 46.7 million tonnes in 2025 according to preliminary figures from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. That is about a third lower than in 1990. But the trend broke in 2024, when emissions rose by just over 7 percent. The Swedish Climate Policy Council attributes the rise largely to two political decisions: lower tax on petrol and diesel and a much lower biofuel blending requirement. The Environmental Protection Agency finds that current policy instruments are not enough to meet Sweden's climate targets or its EU commitment for 2030. In 2026 the Council concluded that the government's policy during the term had been insufficient, but that the targets can still be met if decisions come soon.
Electricity is already almost fossil free. In 2024 Sweden produced about 170 TWh, mainly hydro, nuclear and wind power, and less than one percent came from fossil fuels. Sweden's net exports were about 33 TWh. The problem is rather where the power is: southern Sweden produces little electricity and the lines from the north are not always enough, so prices there can at times be high.
Compared with its neighbours, Sweden has the lowest emissions per capita, but Denmark and Finland have cut their emissions more since 1990. Norway has cut the least, even though almost all new cars there are electric. Iceland is the only Nordic country with higher emissions than in 1990. The renewable share of Sweden’s energy fell in 2024, because the renewable share in transport dropped from 33.6 to 26.4 per cent in a single year.
Emissions, renewable energy and electric cars in the Nordic countries
| Country | Emissions per capita 2024 | Emissions compared with 1990 | Renewables share of all energy 2024 | Electric share of new passenger cars 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden | 4.5 tonnes | 33 per cent lower | 62.8 percent | 36 percent |
| Norway | 8.0 tonnes | 13 per cent lower | 77.9 percent | 95 percent |
| Denmark | 6.1 tonnes | 49 per cent lower | 46.5 percent | 68 percent |
| Finland | 7.0 tonnes | 45 per cent lower | 52.1 percent | 37 percent |
| Iceland | 12.4 tonnes | 30 percent higher | 79.3 percent | 41 percent |
| EU total | 6.7 tonnes | 38 per cent lower | 25.2 percent | 17 percent |
Sources: Eurostat (greenhouse gas emissions env_air_gge, population demo_gind, renewable share according to SHARES nrg_ind_ren, newly registered passenger cars road_eqr_carpda). Emissions are territorial in CO2 equivalents, excluding land use and forestry (LULUCF) and international aviation and shipping. Electric cars refers to battery electric cars only, not plug-in hybrids. Norway and Iceland are not in the EU but report the same statistics through the EEA. Naturvårdsverket has since revised Sweden’s emissions for 2024 up from 47.5 to 48.1 million tonnes, so the Swedish per-capita figure is slightly too low.
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Does the carbon tax work?
Yes, at least for transport. Sweden introduced a carbon tax in 1991. Compared with a weighted average of similar OECD countries, transport emissions fell by almost 11 per cent, and most of that is explained by the tax. Drivers reacted three times more strongly to the carbon tax than to price changes of the same size for other reasons.
Andersson (2019), American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
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What did the lowered biofuel blending mandate do to emissions?
They rose clearly. In January 2024 the biofuel blending requirement was cut from the highest level in the EU to one of the lowest, while tax on petrol and diesel was lowered. Fossil fuel use in transport then rose by about 22 percent, or 3 million tonnes, equal to about 7 percent of Sweden's total emissions. On 1 July 2025 the requirement was raised from 6 to 10 percent, and in 2025 transport emissions fell by 0.7 million tonnes thanks to more biofuels and more electric cars.
Klimatpolitiska rådet (Swedish Climate Policy Council) (2025), Swedish Climate Policy Council report 2025. Naturvårdsverket (2026), Sweden's greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
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Does more wind power make electricity more expensive?
Not in the hours when the wind blows, when the price is pushed down. In the Nordic region hydropower works like a battery: Danish wind power slightly lowered prices in southern Norway in the short run, and up to 40 percent of Danish wind power was in effect stored in Norwegian reservoirs. The downside is that each new kilowatt hour of wind is worth less the more wind power there is. In a large modelling study the value of wind power fell from 110 percent of the average power price to between 50 and 80 percent when wind supplies 30 percent of electricity. More wind power therefore requires more storage, flexible demand and stronger grids.
Mauritzen (2013), The Energy Journal. Hirth (2013), Energy Economics.
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Is new nuclear power needed?
Not to get through the next ten years. The Swedish Climate Policy Council, like the Swedish Energy Agency, finds that new nuclear power cannot contribute before about 2035, while wind power can supply a large share of new electricity until then. The Council warns that the state is subsidising new nuclear power without having analysed whether it is the cheapest way to get fossil free electricity, and relays the risk that costs could become very large for taxpayers and electricity customers. The Council wants the government first to analyse which power sources deliver fossil free electricity most cheaply.
Klimatpolitiska rådet (Swedish Climate Policy Council) (2026), Swedish Climate Policy Council report 2026.
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Do electric car subsidies help?
Yes, but charging stations may give more for the money. In Norway both lower car prices and support for charging stations led to more electric cars being bought. Between 2010 and 2015, a krone spent on charging stations produced more than twice as many additional electric cars as a krone spent on price subsidies. The advantage shrinks as spending grows, because the effect of more charging stations tails off faster.
Springel (2021), American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
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How much does the forest help as a carbon sink?
A lot. In 2024 forests and land absorbed about 54 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, more than Sweden's total emissions. But the uptake fell sharply between 2010 and 2021, as forests grew more slowly while felling and insect damage were high. Now uptake in living trees is rising again. In 2026 the Swedish Climate Policy Council found that the higher uptake has improved the chances of meeting Sweden's EU commitment for forests and land, but that uptake must stay high.
Naturvårdsverket (2026), Net greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use. Klimatpolitiska rådet (Swedish Climate Policy Council) (2026), Swedish Climate Policy Council report 2026.
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Does climate policy cost jobs?
It does not show up in research on the EU emissions trading system. In France, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom, emissions from covered installations fell by about 10 percent between 2005 and 2012. Data for firms in all countries in the system show no effect on profits or employment, and revenues if anything rose. French manufacturing firms in the system cut emissions by 14 to 16 percent with no noticeable fall in output, and the study found no sign that emissions moved to other firms or countries. The studies cover the early years of emissions trading.
Dechezleprêtre, Nachtigall and Venmans (2023), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. Colmer, Martin, Muûls and Wagner (2025), Review of Economic Studies.
Where the figures come from.
- National Emissions Database (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and RUS, SMED, operated by SMHI): greenhouse gases by municipality and sector. The database states no licence; we have asked the agency and show the figures while awaiting an answer.
- SCB (CC0): electricity production by source and electricity use for Sweden, households' electricity price per bidding zone and before them for the whole country, municipalities' electricity production and use 1990 to 2008, new cars by fuel 2006 to 2016, national emissions from 1990 (the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's climate reporting) and the population.
- Processed statistics from the Swedish Energy Agency: electricity production by source and electricity use 1970 to 1985.
- Jones et al. 2025, Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0): greenhouse gas emissions for Sweden 1860 to 1989.
- Our own processing of data from the Swedish Energy Agency and Statistics Sweden via Kolada: electricity production, wind power, solar cells and electricity use by municipality. The national figure is weighted by population.
- Transport Analysis, via Kolada and directly: electric cars as a share of cars in traffic and of new registrations.
- SMHI PTHBV (CC BY 4.0): annual mean temperature on a grid of four kilometre cells, averaged over the municipality's cells.
- Not included: Klimatkollen's municipal data, because its terms do not allow republishing here, and hourly prices from the power exchange, which the monthly prices already cover.
The figures per municipality are also map layers on the map.