The future following the climate goals

Published Dec 22, 2017

To achieve the climate goals and create a sustainable society requires major changes. In a new book, researchers at KTH have investigated this from an everyday life perspective with an artistic touch and science as a basis.

The book Vitiden – en energifiktion¹has been published by researchers at KTH together with graphic designers and illustrators. The book is a manifest based on one of the Swedish Energy Agency's scenarios from the study "Four Futures: The Energy System After 2020".

“It is relatively easy to agree on high-ranking climate goals, but the important thing in this book is how it affects us as citizens and how we will conduct our lifes to achieve the goals" says Elina Eriksson, one of the researchers behind the book.

The book discusses a fictional future – ‘the we-age’ – where goals and values such as togetherness and solidarity characterize society in order to meet sustainability goals. The authors say that, for example, common housing with less space per person can be part of the solution to reduce energy use.

“Some things will probably be lost but we can gain in other areas – new things that can contribute to quality of life. These are aspects that Vitiden tries to highlight” says Loove Broms, researcher at KTH and one of the authors.

The purpose of Vitiden is to invite reflection and discussion on how our society can be organized to achieve climate goals. Through a combination of text and image, a complex image of the transition creates a space for both moral positions, utopian dreams and everyday life.

Vitiden is developed by researchers in the Green Leap network, KTH, together with graphic designers and illustrators. The research project has been funded by the Swedish Energy Agency. The book is only available in Swedish.

¹ In English The we-age – an energy fiction.