Sweden
Modelling Degrowth Policies in Sweden: Towards Policy Coherence
Degrowth policies have been proposed as a way to reduce environmental pressures and advance social equity in high-income countries. They have been discussed extensively in qualitative terms, but quantifying their socio-economic and environmental impacts is essential to assessing whether they can work in practice.
Intervention
In collaboration with researchers at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Millennium Institute used a Swedish version of its iSD model to study the impacts and dynamics of combined degrowth policies in Sweden from 2026 to 2050. The analysis tested policies individually and as a package, including downscaling production with high environmental footprints, reducing working hours, and redistributing income and wealth, and assessed how they could be financed.
Key Policies and Reccomendations
Policies work only as a coherent package. The model shows that the simulated degrowth policies are effective only when applied together; implemented in isolation, they create trade-offs.
Lower pressures and fewer social gaps. Downscaling high-footprint production, combined with shorter working hours and redistribution of income and wealth, rapidly reduces environmental pressures while reducing poverty, inequality and unemployment.
Financing needs long-term reforms. Higher tax revenues make the package feasible to finance in the short term, but rising government debt in the long term calls for complementary reforms or deeper structural changes.