The impact of the Global Megatrends upon the Swedish Generational Goal

Hordur Haraldsson, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency

The Swedish Generation (SGG) goal is a national goal formed and stipulated in 2010 by the Swedish parliament for long-term sustainable development in seven main indents overlapping natural, societal and economical goals for sustainability.

The SGG is an overarching goal and links into the current Swedish Environmental Objective system. Although the SGG is a national goal, its intention is to have a clear connection to the international arena and global agreements. This requires a clear definition of scales between the local, national and global level. In order to Lmderstand the different scales it is necessary to understand what driving forces and feedback loops are at work as well as the actors and external forces are influencing locally and globally. This study takes a top-down approach to analyze to what extent the so-called Global Megatrends influence and impact the possibilities of Sweden to fulfill the Swedish Generation Goals in the near and long term, towards sustainable development. The study shows that external driving forces can both be indirect supportive as well as hampering the different SGG indents. This information can aid us in understanding what key leverage points are important to influence to support policies as well as what type of indicators should be developed in order to measure success of those policies.

Keywords: Global Megatrends, Swedish Generation Goals, System Dynamics, Causal Loop Diagrams, sustainable development, indicators