Governing Within the Constraints of Carbon Budgets: Regional Insights From Sweden

ABSTRACT Staying within the limits of a rapidly shrinking global carbon budget while avoiding dependency on negative emissions technologies and carbon dioxide removal remains a significant challenge in a multi‐level governance system, where resources and responsibilities are dispersed among different actors. In this paper, we analyse the distribution of perceived agency aimed at accelerating climate action aligned with regional carbon budgets among various actors in three Swedish counties—Östergötland, Västra Götaland, and Västerbotten. Drawing on the definition of embedded agency, we conceptualise agency as the capacity of organisations to act or effect change as perceived by those actors themselves. We interpret these perceptions through the lens of the six modes of governing: self‐governing, provision, authority, enabling, experiment, and agenda‐setting. We employ this framework through a series of workshops with regional stakeholders responsible for influencing territorial emissions, centring around 19 regional energy and climate interventions. Our study highlights that regional climate governance across the three counties could benefit from a greater emphasis on informal and non‐hierarchical modes, particularly in enabling, agenda‐setting, and experimentation, which actors perceive as having the greatest potential to advance more ambitious climate action within the constraints of regional carbon budgets. While formal authority remains underutilised despite its legal availability, the findings demonstrate the need for more decisive leadership, capacity‐building, and supportive structures to translate other modes of governing, such as enabling strategies, into tangible results. Regional variations further show that tailored approaches, responsive to local contexts, are crucial for scaling effective climate initiatives.