Four sustainability goals in a Swedish low-growth/degrowth context

Continual environmental degradation and an unfair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits are two great challenges for humanity. Economic growth is often taken for granted when planning for the future. However, it is often argued that maintaining economic growth is in conflict with keeping human activities adjusted to ecological boundaries and finite resources, at least for the more-developed countries. With this paper we present sustainability goals for building and planning in Sweden 2050 in a context of limited or even negative economic growth. The sustainability goals should ensure that all groups in society have sufficient resources and a good life within planetary boundaries. The goals are set at a national level but in a global context. We select four goals, two environmental goals related to climate change and land use and two social goals, related to welfare and participation. Our results show that achieving the sustainability goals, especially for land use and climate, will require significant reductions of Sweden's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and land use compared to today's level. Regarding the social goals, these are in many aspects reasonably well fulfilled in Sweden today although many challenges remain in order to ensure similar opportunities for all Swedish residents. The main challenge, however, is to ensure that these goals are fulfilled even within environmental limits and if economic growth should halt or become negative. Key words: Sustainability goals; Degrowth; Environmental Justice; Futures studies.