A year ago, Greta Thunberg began her climate strike outside the Riksdag. With a strong and concrete message, she has since managed to reach the whole world: the planet's boundaries must be respected. The researchers' alarms must be taken seriously.

The change needs to happen immediately and permeate all sectors.

An important point that Greta points out is that we cannot cope with the climate change with only new technology. Behavioral changes and societal structures are also needed.

We cannot shirk responsibility by pointing to future technological advances because we cannot know if they will come.

In addition, the change must take place very quickly, we do not have decades for us.

  • Individuals must live more sustainably in our everyday lives. An example is how we transport ourselves. Electrification of aviation and road transport lies decades into the future and biofuels will in the next few years only contribute marginally. We do not have time to wait for these scenarios but need to act now.
  • Companies need to reduce their carbon footprint and better communicate their sustainability in order to simplify individual choices. The research agrees that we cannot consume ourselves from the climate crisis and thus it places higher demands on the entire production chain.
  • Parliament's democratic parties need to agree on a ceiling for emissions based on our consumption. Emissions within Sweden's borders have decreased since the 1990s, but a strong contributing reason is that much of what we consume is produced in other countries. It is not won if the emissions from our consumption are registered in other countries.

So the whole society needs to be better at taking care of the research alarms and translating it into concrete change in society.

It is not enough to just rely on technological advances, we must also bring about major behavioral changes so that our travelers and our consumption do not give rise to large emissions.

Such a change requires that politicians, companies and citizens all take greater climate responsibility than today.