Urban sustainability is a key locus and focus of global climate action due to the high resource consumption, population density and tradition of innovation and investment. An assessment of the effectiveness of urban climate actions is necessary to assure goals are met and negative effects on surrounding regions, under-served populations, and the wider landscape are minimized. This study defines and builds a qualitative, descriptive mapping of two specific measures from Stockholm’s 2030 climate action plan that have impacts both within and outside of the metropolitan Stockholm area. We include both descriptive analysis and quantitative calculations to assess the magnitude of the impacts. Climate, land, energy, and water impacts are considered. 

Replacing fossil oil in the district heating system with bio-oil was evaluated through comparing the fossil oil reference scenario, a bio-oil from fast pyrolysis of food waste scenarios, and a tall oil pitch scenario. It was found that using fast pyrolysis bio-oil from food waste resulted in the most CO2e emissions. Fossil oil had the highest land use impact. It was found that tall oil pitch had the highest energy demand for production. Fossil oil had the highest water impact. The spillovers associated with the measure were found to occur mostly within Europe, with some in the US and China. 

 It was found that, when implementing bio-energy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) within the system limits defined in the study, negative emissions would have the greatest climate impact. The emissions due to transporting the CO2 to its storage location were found to be negligible. The land use impacts due to storing the CO2 were found to be negligible. It was found that there is a tradeoff between power generation and carbon sequestration. The energy needed to inject the CO2 into its storage location was quantified. Finally, the water impact due to the CO2 storage was found to be negligible, though water consumption due to adding the carbon capture unit could increase, depending on the technology used. 

 This study is part of an academic partnership and exchange between UC Berkeley in the USA and KTH in Sweden.