Järfälla's new vision – a place for everyone – goes hand in hand with the ambition of creating vibrant, climate-neutral cities. The vision of strong local communities with rich diversity and proximity to services, nature, and meeting places can be achieved through the principles of the 15-minute city, where residents have walking or cycling distance to most of what they need. This provides significant synergy gains with reduced emissions and cleaner air.
The goals and budget stipulate that Järfälla shall take significant responsibility for the climate and the green transition. At the same time, the economic downturn has contributed to a shortage of resources and made cost-cutting measures necessary, highlighting the need to prioritize initiatives that can generate further savings in the long term, such as energy efficiency and climate adaptation measures.
Despite the economic situation, intensive work has been carried out to maintain a high level of climate action in Järfälla. Several new policy documents have been drawn up and adopted over the past year, including a local waste management strategy and a revised climate and energy plan that incorporates Järfälla's climate neutrality goal. The goal is specified in concrete terms through an impact target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15% per year – an ambitious goal that is necessary in order to take sufficiently large steps in the right direction!
In the city's latest update, they talk about the work, the transition arena, the project portfolio and much more.
Ida Bohman, process manager for Climate Neutral Järfälla 2030, ida.bohman@jarfalla.se
Purification of sulphide clay. As part of the Stockholm Agreement, Järfälla is building 14,000 new homes by 2035. Construction also generates excavated material, which needs to be handled intelligently. In 2024, a mass management strategy was developed with the aim of minimising the generation of waste and increasing the reuse of excavated material. This will reduce the amount of waste and greenhouse gas emissions, lower transport and purchasing costs for new fill material, and ensure a secure supply of materials. One of the measures implemented to reduce the amount of surplus material is that the municipality has tested new technology for purifying sulfide-containing material. This has significantly reduced the amount of sulfide clay that would otherwise have been sent to landfill. Instead, the sulfide clay has been converted into topsoil that can be recycled and used in planting.
Climate assessment of new master plan. In recent years, intensive work has been underway to develop a new master plan for Järfälla. The master plan is one of Järfälla's most important policy documents and sets out the long-term vision for how the municipality's land and water resources are to be used, preserved, and developed. To ensure that Järfälla's ambitious climate goals are taken into account, the municipality chose to carry out a climate calculation of various plan alternatives. The climate calculation aimed to facilitate trade-offs between different types of development scenarios and highlight the climate impact of different decisions. With the help of the consulting firm Spacescape, a climate calculation was carried out for four development scenarios: Zero Alternative, Circular, Densification, and New Construction. The calculations were based on a large amount of data, and the diagram shows a summary of the four development scenarios examined and their emissions:
The "New Construction" option has 2.5 times higher climate emissions compared to the circular plan option, which focuses instead on renovating and converting existing properties. The additional space required for the construction of new buildings is the single most important explanation for the large differences in total climate emissions. Materials, distance to services, project start time, and changes in land use also affect the size of emissions.
Several planning exercises were also carried out as part of the climate calculation. The exercises showed, for example, that Järfälla could reduce its net carbon dioxide emissions by up to 30 percent by building exclusively with wood. The following measures are considered to have a particularly significant impact on Järfälla's efforts to reduce climate emissions from urban development:
The climate calculation has formed the basis for the development of the final draft plan for Järfälla's comprehensive plan.
The city is currently working on collecting good examples of how they mobilize and work for the climate transition. They will be here soon!
Climate City Contract 2030 is a collective effort to achieve the climate transition that we need to implement in a short time to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. It is an agreement between municipalities, government agencies and Viable Cities where all parties undertake to make a concrete contribution to increasing the pace of climate change.
To achieve deep change, we need to move from fragmented projects to an ecosystem of efforts that all pull in the same direction. Cities are doing this together with Viable Cities, funders government agencies and other partners, in different constellations and with different objectives. It is about moving beyond dealing with symptoms and instead focusing on underlying problems in our social structure. Here you will find the initiatives and studies within the city that have been granted funding under Viable Cities.
Gävle is part of the NetZeroCities 112 Mission Cities, selected since 2022 to pioneer the EU Cities Mission.
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