Nord Stream leaks tear hole in Sweden's emissions report

The gas leaks from the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea have had a significant impact on Sweden's greenhouse gas emissions.

The gas leakage in Sweden's exclusive economic zone amounted to around 5.8 million CO2 equivalents, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday. This corresponds to around 11% of Sweden's total domestic emissions in 2022, which the Scandinavian country reports to the European Union and the United Nations.

Without the leaks, Sweden's emissions in 2022 would have fallen by around 5% compared to 2021, but with them they would have risen by around 7%, it said. However, this would not affect Sweden's ability to achieve its climate targets by 2030, it said.

The pipelines had transported Russian gas to Germany before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour on February 22, 2022.

Seven months later, on September 26, explosions were recorded near the Danish island of Bornholm. Shortly afterwards, four leaks were discovered in three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, two of which were in the Swedish and Danish exclusive economic zones.

In November 2022, the Swedish public prosecutor's office confirmed the suspicion that this was sabotage from the outset - but it is still unclear who is responsible.

According to the authorities, around 96% of the leaked gas was methane. Methane and other climate-damaging greenhouse gases are converted into CO2 - so-called CO2 equivalents - for better comparability. A special method was used to calculate the distribution of the leaked gas, the agency said.