Green Swedes

Sweden has set ambitious new energy standards that show how seriously it takes environmental issues. “Our dependency on oil should be broken by 2020,” said Mona Sahlin, Sweden’s minister of sustainable development. “There shall always be better alternatives to oil, which means no house should need oil for heating, and no driver should need to turn solely to gasoline.”

The country has struck a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, carmakers, civil servants and others to report to parliament on how to achieve the goal. If successful, Sweden would become the first nation to be oil-free. The country already gets almost all its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power. Virtually all heating and cooling now comes from steam, whether derived from natural hot water sources and used to run power plants, or from running water directly through the pipes of buildings to heat or cool, depending on the season.

In 2003, 26 percent of Sweden’s energy came from renewable sources; the European Union average was six percent. Only 32 percent of Sweden’s energy needs came from oil, a drop from 77 percent in 1970. The government is also working with major Swedish carmakers Volvo and Saab to develop vehicles that use ethanol and other biofuels.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 9:17 pm and is filed under Under-reported. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.