Thousands march in Stockholm for stronger climate action ahead of election

HELSINKI - More than 50,000 people marched through central Stockholm, the Swedish capital, on Sunday to demand stronger action on climate change, organizers said, three weeks before Sweden holds national elections.

Some 280 organizations took part in the demonstration, including environmental and human rights groups, trade unions, religious organizations, researchers and cultural groups, according to Swedish media reports.

Beatrice Rindevall, chairperson of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and one of the main organizers, told Swedish media that policymakers needed to take the climate crisis seriously.

The demonstration comes as climate change has moved higher on voters' agendas ahead of the national election next month, while attitudes toward the issue have become increasingly divided along political lines.

Around 65 percent of people who identify with the political left said they were very concerned about climate change, compared with fewer than 30 percent of those on the right, according to the latest national survey by the SOM Institute, an independent research organization, at the University of Gothenburg.

A separate survey by Swedish polling firm Novus in June ranked climate sixth among voters' most important political issues, up from ninth in January.

Martin Hultman, a professor of sociology at the University of Gothenburg, told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that Sweden could be seeing a new wave of climate engagement.

He said the previous wave had lost momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic amid fossil-fuel industry lobbying, disinformation and electoral gains by right-wing nationalist forces. The renewed engagement could partly reflect people experiencing the effects of climate change more directly in their daily lives, he said.

Sweden will hold elections to the Riksdag, the country's parliament, as well as regional and municipal councils on Sept 13.