When Klas Eklund left his position as Chief Economist at S-E-Banken, at his own request, he announced that it would mark the end of his 90-hour working weeks. Nowadays, he is Senior Economist at the same bank and, at the same time, writing a book — ‘Our Climate’ (Vårt klimat) — and running a horse farm in Skåne.‘I’ve taken on several other assignments, but in any case I’ve managed to halve the time I work for the bank. The difference is that I can control my own time better now,’ Eklund says.
Various skills
One assignment he has accepted is membership of the Mistra Swedish Research Programme on Climate, Impacts and Adaptation (Mistra-SWECIA) board. This research programme is still in its infancy but the purpose is to link together, through four different subprojects, climate models that include costs to society. Climate modellers, social scientists and economists are therefore included in the programme.
‘Much of the climate debate is based on climate models. It’s important for these models to be linked to the external world. We need to analyse the interplay between society, climate and economic development. One of the main functions of the programme is to link various models together, and for that many different skills are needed,’ Eklund says.
Climate for a bank economist
Initially, he hopes to be able to assist in making the organisation of the programme workable; but as the results come through he would like to join in popularising and communicating them. One of the main tasks that lie ahead, in his opinion, is to put a price on the repercussions of climate change.
For a bank economist, then there are many links between the financial sector and the climate. Klas Eklund has participated, for example, in developing tools for examining companies’ and investors’ ability to manage the climate issue. S-E-Banken, in cooperation with the World Bank, recently issued a green bond to finance projects aimed at reducing climate change or helping people to adapt to it. He is also currently completing his book ‘Our Climate’ (Vårt klimat), which is to be published by Norstedts förlag in spring 2009.
Gap in the market
‘I think there has been a gap when it comes to literature about the climate issue. On the one hand there are heavy research reports and on the other debate contributions that express particular arguments. What I want to achieve is a book that provides basic knowledge on the climate issue but also discusses what can be done, what tools actually exist and how to sift through the various action proposals made to date. My book is, I suppose, an attempt to give some kind of structure to climate policy,’ the author and educator declares.
The 11th, updated edition of Eklund’s economics textbook, Vår ekonomi – en introduktion till samhällsekonomin (‘Our Economy: An Introduction to Economics’), came out in 2007. Since the book was first published in 1987, it has been read by tens of thousands of Swedish students, as well as Russians and Chinese by the hundred thousand. It remains to be seen whether ‘Our Climate’ will be just as widely read.
Price the determinant
For Klas Eklund, this interest in the environment is not new. It is something he was already pursuing back in the Ministry of Finance in the 1980s. On the other hand, he does not see it as self-evident that sustainable investments will yield superior corporate profits in the short term.
‘It is too early to draw conclusions of this kind on the basis of the research reports presented so far. We may hope that this is so, but for the time being it’s more a matter of a company’s skills than of anything else. Skilled company managements are looking at development in the longer term; they take responsibility and, by the same token, they take the climate issue into account.’
What will settle the climate issue is the price of emitting carbon dioxide.
‘It’s not the moral arguments that will win through in climate policy. Not until individual citizens see from their disposable incomes that a climate-friendly way of life is worth their while will we see any great change.’
Green services and goods
To date, this has been a problem since a living in line with climate considerations is very often more expensive than not doing so. Thus, green services and goods must nonetheless, in the true spirit of market economics, be relatively cheaper, Eklund points out.
‘In that perspective, the rising oil prices have been a good thing. If we get a situation in which goods and services that result in carbon emissions become more expensive in relation to “green goods”, it will also be easier to connect society’s interests and personal interests.’
For the past few years, he has lived on a horse farm near Lund. There, he and his family are steadily adapting their lifestyle to make it more climate-friendly.
‘We started by removing the oil boiler and installing a geothermal heating system under the field. Now we’re switching to better-insulated windows, and then to a new car,’ Klas Eklund concludes.
