Mistra-SWECIA - Swedish Research Programme on Climate, Impacts and Adaptation

Climate change is a reality and it is important to analyse the effects these changes will have on the environment and on society, as well as investigate how societies will be required to adapt their activities to the altered conditions.

Mistra-SWECIA is a Swedish, multidisciplinary programme that develops research-based knowledge which is used to support decisions about adaptation to climate change. Mistra-SWECIA builds on expertise from several research areas, including climatology, ecosystem science, economics, sociology and political science. The approach is to perform scientifically sound, scenario-based integrated climate, impact and economic analysis and research on the adaptation process. Parallel to, and as one approach to achieving its science goals, the programme engages with stakeholders within and across different sectors and at a range of scales. By collaborating with Mistra-SWECIA, stakeholders are expected to benefit from focused decision-support and an enhanced capacity to translate scientific information into practical knowledge of direct relevance for decision making. By 2015 the programme will have resulted in three main outcomes:

-  a new strong and cross-disciplinary Swedish research arena, bringing together physical climate sciences, terrestrial ecosystem and carbon cycle science, economics, and social sciences at the international state-of-the-art level;

-  strengthened ability of Sweden to manage climate change by means of proactive adaptation on local, regional (sub-national) and national scales;

-  building-blocks of a strategy for long-term science-based and stakeholder-oriented operations of a national climate and adaptation dialogue platform.

Mistra-SWECIA’s research focuses on land use and on the ways in which Swedish forests and forestry are affected by climate change and, more generally, how the effects of climate change are relevant to those involved in forestry, agriculture and nature conservation.

Programme donors and partners

Mistra-SWECIA is funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (Mistra). The programme involves SMHI (The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute), SEI (Stockholm Environment Institute), Lund University and Stockholm University. It began in 2008 and runs until 2015. SMHI is the programme host.

Top photo: Färna Ekopark National Park. © Kjell Gustavsson.

Related publications

• Transformative Learning and Engagement with Climate Change Adaptation: Experiences with Sweden’s Forestry Sector

• Climate change adaptation in Swedish forestry. A historical overview 1990-2010

• Science-practice interactions linked to climate adaptation in two contexts: municipal planning and forestry in Sweden

• Adaptive capacity determinants in developed states: examples from the Nordic countries and Russia 

• Beyond generic adaptive capacity: exploring the adaptation space of the water supply and wastewater sector of the Stockholm region, Sweden

• Knowledge for local climate change adaptation in Sweden: challenges of multilevel governance

• A Framework for Dialogue Between Local Climate Adaptation Professionals and Policy Makers

• A framework for facilitating dialogue between policy planners and local climate change adaptation professionals: Cases from Sweden, Canada and Indonesia

• Method Development for Identifying and Analysing Stakeholders in Climate Change Adaptation Processes 

• Perceptions of Risk and Limits to Climate Change Adaptation: Case Studies of Two Swedish Urban Regions