Climate challenges are up to you!

Personal responsibility for emissions

No mandatory climate transition, but a system based on flexibility and personal responsibility. That is the right way to go, says Acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor Mette Sandoff, who is also Chair of the working group for the Climate Framework. What is new is that all emissions are counted, not just air travel.

You have backed away from the proposal to introduce climate transition centrally and have given the faculties the mandate to decide for themselves how to achieve the Climate Framework's goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent by 2030, compared with 2019 levels. Why did you abandon the concept of a climate transition?

– There wasn’t enough support for it. The working group had extensive discussions with the various operations during the spring, through a number of workshops, discussions at strategy meetings and several meetings with deans and heads of department. The clear message was that they wanted to take responsibility themselves for their carbon dioxide reduction measures for all types of emission areas, instead of being guided by a model that only focuses on air travel. Our idea is to give the operations clear mandates that are based on personal responsibility and the opportunity to influence the situation. It is also in line with how we normally govern the University of Gothenburg, for example when it comes to work on quality. In the long run, a system that enables influence and responsibility is more likely to lead to a change in behaviour.

So what can you do at an overarching level to support the organisation?

– At the central level, it is about supporting, encouraging and following up, and spreading best practice. The Faculty of Social Sciences, for example, already has a plan for how to work with this issue, while others may be further behind and need more help. Nothing has really changed in terms of the goal: to reduce emissions in two stages, 25 percent by the end of 2023 and 50 percent by 2030. Furthermore, technical system support will be in place by July 2022.

The students are critical of the fact that the University of Gothenburg has not set a more challenging goal than the national minimum goal, and thus take the lead internationally.

– We have obtained support for this in the working group, and there is a student representative who is part of the group. We think we are working on and taking the issue seriously. Based on the information we have discussed in the working group, when it comes to the work of other higher education institutions, the University of Gothenburg seems to be at the forefront in Sweden. This is a realistic goal that we believe will work for us.

But how do you check that the University of Gothenburg's various activities will achieve the goal?

–– The work to reduce carbon emissions will be integrated into the regular planning and follow-up process, and will be discussed in operational meetings from spring 2022. The planning and follow-up at the central level will align with

It is not feasible to sit and wait until 2023 and see how things go.

METTE SANDOFF

Mette Sandoff

the specified levels in the vice-chancellor's decision, i.e. the faculty, university library and Central Administration. How you decide to organise the work within a faculty for example, is up to the faculty. This means that there is a great deal of flexibility and that different departments might have different goals. At the faculty level, you also have the opportunity to reprioritize, if the staff at a department need to fly more. It is not feasible to sit and wait until 2023 and see how things go. Instead, action is required fairly immediately. The technical system support enables continuous follow-up, and if we discover that things are not going in the right direction, we will have to reconsider the decision. Based on previous experience, however, I believe that the organisation's representatives are taking the task very seriously.

Another proposal, which has not yet been decided on, is to increase the standard fee per flight to be paid into the climate fund from SEK 118 to SEK 400. Why did you not increase it further?

– Then we are back in the same situation as with the previous proposal, that a high price should be set for only one of the emission items. There was strong criticism that it could backfire, if a faculty wants to work in a different way. On the other hand, we think it is important to highlight the importance of reducing air travel, and the fee has not been changed for a long time, so making this adjustment will send an important signal.

Would it not have sent an even more effective signal to tax domestic flights at SEK 3,000, as was the suggestion in the original proposal, in order to stop flights to Stockholm?

– According to the travel policy, you should not fly to Stockholm, so that question is a separate issue and not part of the proposal we are talking about now. Introducing a very high fee for a specific emissions item could hit operations that are more dependent than others on travel in particular. It must not be a one-sided obstacle for the organisation, which then has to work on other ways of reducing emissions.

How do you see the conflict of goals that the University of Gothenburg is, on the one hand, an international university with a high degree of mobility, based on travel, and, on the other hand, a university that is known for its work on sustainability?

– Mobility can be promoted in various ways, including virtual meetings, which is something we have learned during the pandemic. When we talk about international collaboration, it is important to consider which trips are necessary. The former, narrow proposal, was aimed solely at taxing air travel, which could adversely impact an individual department that has to travel to conduct its business internationally. Then, that department should be able to compensate in other ways to make climate savings. Anyone who wants to use climate transition or another model is free to do so. When it comes to virtual international educational collaboration, we already have good experience from Eutopia, for example. Over the past year, both lecturers and students have been able to meet virtually and carry out planned activities of a high standard – a specific example of how international collaboration does not require physical travel.

Text: Allan Eriksson Photo: Johan Wingborg

Facts

In 2019, the University

of Gothenburg joined the Climate Framework, which is an agreement between 38 Swedish universities. The goal is to contribute to the climate transition and to not exceed a global temperature increase of 1.5°C. This means that universities and colleges are committed to halving carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 (compared with the base year of 2019).