Stockholm is to be fossil-fuel free by 2040. The City Council has set up a milestone target for emissions of no more than 2.3 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents) per resident by 2020. The strategy lays down a minimum level to achieve the long-term goal. Success is predicated on structural change and it is essential to pursue continuous reassessments. Example targets include:

- The City collaborates with energy companies, hospitals, etc. to gradually replace fossil oils with renewable fuels to meet peak load demands.

- The City supports Fortum Värme’s work to increase connections to the Open District Heating network and to investigate the potential for even more users.

- The City lobbies for legislation and regulations that support the use of fossil-free energy.

- The City aims to produce enough of its own solar energy based electricity to meet 10% of the municipal organisation’s electricity consumption.

- The City takes action to improve energy efficiency in its municipal operations by 10% compared with the reference year 2015. This will reduce emissions by at least 20,000 tonnes of CO2 by 2020. This target applies to all municipal operations, but most particularly to the Real Estate and Service Committees and the boards of Svenska bostäder, Stockholmshem, Familjebostäder, Micasa and SISAB.

- The City produces a model for the layout and form factor of buildings with the aim of facilitating compliance with energy requirement.

- The City increases its own solar energy production by 2020 at a rate sufficient to meet the goal for 2040.

- The City investigates the potential for reducing the amount of fossil plastic in incinerated waste. Chemicals, health and other environmental impacts must be considered in addition to climate impact.

- The City produces a report that describes how to secure an increase in the production of biogas that is sufficient to meet needs to replace fossil natural gas.

Photo by Adam Gavlák on Unsplash