The Consumption Compass: Planning and implementation for reduced climate footprints at the local level

This project will continue developing the Consumption Compass, an existing prototype web-based Excel tool, that can be used to understand and visualize Sweden’s consumption-based emissions (footprints) at municipal and postcode levels.

To allow monitoring of consumption trends over time, a time series function will be developed as well as a module for scenario analysis.

This will enable policymakers to analyze the impact of anticipated changes in households’ consumption behavior and better understand what policies and measures are needed to target consumption behaviors.

The new functions will require developing both the back end and a new web-based front end, replacing the existing Excel version of the tool.

The resulting footprint data will also be analyzed from a number of socio-economic variables to further increase our understanding of how to target footprint differences in different groups.We will draw on existing methods developed at SEI for footprint downscaling and scenario modeling.

Close collaboration with two case study municipalities will help ensure that the results are accessible and guided by municipalities’ needs and capabilities.

Through this project, municipalities will be able to implement more targeted and effective policy measures and begin to generate a knowledge base of effective, replicable local actions targeting consumption, and ultimately move Sweden closer to achieving long term as well as short term climate objectives.