Sweden to become independent of oil by 2020

Sofia Gradin | 02.10.2005 12:40 | World

The Swedish government announced yesterday that it is launching a programme to end Sweden's oil dependence by 2020. A combination of subsidies for those turning away from fossil fuel, quotas putting limits on fossil fuel consumption, and more research money into renewable energy production, is the government's strategy to put an end to the rule of oil.

On Friday October 1st Sweden's Minister for Sustainable Development, backed by the Prime Minister, announced the government's plan to make Sweden completely independent of oil by year 2020. "Climate change is the greatest and most important environmental challenge of our time" writes Mona Sahlin, Minister for Sustainable Development. But there is also economic incentive: "A fossil fuel free Sweden would have enormous advantages, also by making us less affected by fluctuations in oil prices."

The government will be launching a programme to subsidise owners of residential houses who swap from fossil fuels to renewables. The renewables quota system introduced in 2003 will be expanded, forcing all electricity customers to buy a certain, and constantly increasing, percentage of renewable electricity. The government will also subsidise drivers of environmentally friendly cars by making carbon dioxide-neutral fuels free from taxes. There will also be more public money going into research, with the aim of developing more and more efficient renewable energy production.

The government, obviously, is not promising any miracles – the "independence" bit is not in there by mistake. It is highly unlikely that Sweden will become anything near oil-free by 2020 – all the government is saying is that the country shouldn't _depend_ on oil. What the government's plan has in store for the industrial sector, and for heavier forms of transport such as aviation and lorries, does not emerge from yesterday's announcement. Still, for a government to signal concern for the environment in such a drastic way is impressive.

More reading:

The government's announcement in Swedish, published in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter:

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=572&a=468440

The Watt article (English):

http://www.thewatt.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=779

Treehugger article (English):

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/09/sweden_to_detox.php

Sofia Gradin
e-mail: sofia_gradin@rocketmail.com

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

Sent an e-mail

02.10.2005 15:55

I sent THANK YOU e-mail to the Swedish government the other day when I read this! There are so many people who want this and are ready for it so I think we can achive this goal before the set time!!!!

Nadia

So how is Sweden going to generate its electricity

02.10.2005 16:50

Wind power - on a still day?

Sloar power - in Sweden in winter?

puzzled

Electricity Generation

02.10.2005 18:59

Sweden has a combination programme of wind power, wave energy etc (about 10% of their requirements ) combined with building three new nuclear power stations. The first will begin construction near Gothenburg in March 2006.

Sam

Hurrah for Sweden!

02.10.2005 19:49

As for how they'll generate their power, they already generate a lot by hydro electric :-) but they also generate a lot by nuclear power :-(

The wider question we should be asking, is how are we going to survive on the amount of energy we can generate in the future, as oil production capacity peaks and then drops, then gas production does the same, and the remaining reserves become more difficult and expensive and energy-intensive to extract?

Not "how are we going to generate enough energy", but "how are we going to survive on the energy we can generate".

To be truly sustainable, we must learn to survive on just the energy we can harvest from our planet as our planet absorbs energy from the sun. If we were to live within our energy buget in this way, then according to Paul Mobbs' book "Energy Beyond Oil", each person on the planet would get a lot less energy than the average Western / European person currently uses, but more than many people in the developing world use.

We need to seriously cut down on the amount of energy we use, meaning a pretty drastic change in lifestyles. It's a tough one to sell to westerners accustomed to their cheap flights and disposable consumerist lifestyle, but we can but try....

Simon

traditional heating

02.10.2005 21:53

we don't need electricity much really.

we will need a change of lifestyle.

however, when the oil+gas runs out, people will need to heat their homes somehow, and they'll end up doing it with wood most likely. if we don't have a great deal more forests around when that happens then our wood cover will be completely wiped out quite quickly, and when the wood cover is wiped out the end result is often desertification and erosion

if we want to avoid environmental disaster in the long term we need to start planting a lot of trees now, and continue doing so until all the unused land in the country is forested.

fair play to sweden anyway for at least trying. it's not a solution, but at least it's damage limitation. the human race is running at high speed towards the edge of a cliff, most govewrnment's seem to think the best solution is to run faster and attempt to fly when we pass the edge, at least sweden's trying to slow down. although we should be stopping and going back the other way, or at leaast sideways

i'll stop before i take that analogy way past it's usefulness

-ta

Good start

02.10.2005 22:32

Obviously this isn't going to eliminate our need for oil, but it's a good start nontheless. The more countries that inves in renewable technology the better. As this technology is developed it will then be able to spread to other countries. Not only will this help the environment, it will also reduce the west's need for arab oil.

Humpty Dumpty