The concepts of degrowth and green growth are central in the scientific discussion on resources, climate change and sustainability. This thesis investigates to what degree the concepts are present in the Swedish government’s climate policy. The two climate policy action plans that have hitherto been presented by the government was analysed through a quantitative text analysis method and the findings where then compared with each other. The analysis suggests, unsurprisingly, that green growth is the dominant perspective in both action plans although there exist clear differences in emphasis of the perspectives. The current right-wing government stresses that economic growth should be considered a prerequisite for the transition to sustainable development whilst the former left-wing government tries to merge the concepts of degrowth and green growth although with an emphasis on the later. The findings show that different perspectives on economic growth are present in Swedish climate policy and that the concepts of degrowth and green growth are useful tools to analyse and comprehend these perspectives. The findings raise questions whether opinions on economic growth, as expressed in the government’s action plans, are a result not only from party ideology but also from power struggles within respective government coalition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-530640 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Wikström, Gabriel |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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