New ranking: Best in Sweden at climate change adaptation

Norrköping is this year's best climate change adaptation municipality, according to the latest survey from IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and Insurance Sweden. The results also show that the rate of increase previously seen in climate change adaptation seems to have stopped.

Over all the years we have carried out this survey, Norrköping has been one of the top municipalities. They are number one in Sweden this year because they have prioritized the issue politically and steered towards long-term common climate goals, says Staffan Moberg at Insurance Sweden.

Second in the ranking after Norrköping is Boden, followed by Lomma, Kristianstad and Gävle. A common feature of the leading municipalities is that they have made a political decision to work on climate change adaptation, and have allocated resources for this work.

There is a big difference in how much progress the municipalities have made with climate change adaptation. The scores range from 0 to 33, which is the highest possible score. More than half of the 194 municipalities that responded to the survey did not reach half of the top score. 53 municipalities scored less than ten points, which shows that they have barely begun the work.

In particular, we see that small municipalities are lagging behind in climate change adaptation. This is probably because they have few resources and limited expertise to pursue these issues, says Staffan Moberg.

One result from this year's survey is that the rate of increase previously seen in the municipalities' climate change adaptation work seems to have stalled.

It's concerning that climate change adaptation work is slowing down; rather, the pace needs to increase. Although some municipalities are more vulnerable than others, the whole country will be affected by climate change and every municipality needs to take action, says Magnus Hennlock, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.

Among the factors examined, the study shows that the strongest driver for municipalities to implement climate change adaptation measures is if they have suffered natural damage caused by extreme weather and climate change. One example is Gävle municipality, which was hit by torrential rain and major flooding in 2021. This accelerated their climate change adaptation work, and the municipality has climbed from 80th to fourth place in the ranking. Today, the municipality's work is based on a broad climate change adaptation plan, dominated by a downpour analysis.

Swedish municipalities need to shift from reactive to proactive climate change adaptation. It is about preparing in time, to avoid ending up in acute and costly reactive measures. The extent of the damage from and the costs of climate change are largely determined by our ability to adapt society, and the municipalities have a very important role in this work, says Magnus Hennlock.

Read more in the short version of the report Pdf, 2.5 MB, opens in new window. (in Swedish) or the full version Klimatanpassning 2023 – så långt har kommunerna kommit Pdf, 1.9 MB, opens in new window. (summary in English).

For more information, please contact:
Magnus Hennlock, magnus.hennlock@ivl.se, +46 (0)10-788 69 08
Sara Malmheden, press officer, sara.malmheden@ivl.se, +46 (0)10-788 65 10