Scandinavian Power Down
How exactly will Sweden do without oil?
Derek Wall investigates.
As Principal Speaker I spend a lot of time telling people about energy, how we have to cut oil addiction because its heating up the atmosphere, breeding war and terrible conflict in the Middle East and creating all sorts of pollution. Yet the idea that we need to stop using fossil fuels is still seen as very radical by many of our audiences, even at Green Party meetings! However one country in Europe is already on the road to freedom from oil, coal and gas - Sweden!
Sweden’s response to global warming and oil addiction seems amazing with the Swedish government going for a carbon free economy by 2020. Coal, oil and gas will no longer be used to heat homes, generate electricity or to run transport. This even exceeds the Green Party target of a 90% reduction by 2030. The importance of the Swedish example is that it shows that carbon emissions can be cut to approximately zero without pushing down living standards. If Sweden, a northern country which includes regions in the Artic, can keep its citizen warm without heating up the planet in the process, the UK, US, China and the rest of us can surely follow. Interestingly, the political impetus for action came from concerns about peak oil as well as climate change. Sweden has a head start over most countries. In 2003, 26% of all the energy consumed came from renewable sources - the EU average is 6%. Only 32% of the energy came from oil - down from 77% in 1970.
Today Sweden gets almost all of its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power, and mostly relies on fossil fuels only for transport; most of the heating has been converted to electric space heating, biofuels and waste recycling, with a small percentage remaining fossil fuelled. A 1980 referendum decided that nuclear power is to be phased out, although this has been severely delayed so far, with the exception of the mothballing of the Barsebäck 1 and 2 reactors. Recently there has been trend in Sweden towards increased sales of flexifuel E85 (ethanol) vehicles and fuel, and there are projects underway to increase native production of ethanol and synthetic fuels from forest industry waste.
Its health and library services are being given grants to convert from oil use and homeowners are being encouraged with green taxes. The paper and pulp industries use bark to produce energy, and sawmills burn wood chips and sawdust to generate power. The bold plan to make Sweden carbon free, although endorsed by the present centre right government, was originally formulated in 2005 by the then Social Democratic-led government and supported by the strong Swedish Green Party, so is a very practical example of how visionary green party policies can be introduced. While it is unlikely that use of petrol or diesel will actually become illegal, a variety of sources of biofuel are being introduced. While there are concerns about the amount of land this will take up, biofuels can be made out of waste products introducing a novel ecological principle to energy policy. Even smuggled alcohol is being used as fuel rather than pouring it down the drain. The Tullverket (Swedish customs) confiscates approximately 1 million cans and bottles of illicit beer, lager and spirits a year. These are mixed and made unpalatable and used to power not only private cars but trains and buses.
The Swedish biogas train, which runs between the South East towns of Linköping and Västervik, has become famous worldwide, inspiring the Indians amongst others to copy the idea. Human faeces, slaughterhouse waste and domestic waste are brewed up to give off methane which is then used for fuel. Not only is the need for landfill or incineration drastically reduced but this makes a massive contribution by burning off the methane which is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. These biofuels are not only carbon neutral but generate local jobs. 40,000 cars, equal to 1% of all private motor vehicles, are already powered by biofuels and the tax incentives on biofuel mean that eventually this will rise far further. The Swedes also have some of the highest standards of energy conservation and home insulation in the world. Despite their cold climate, they consume only a fraction of the energy used by other Europeans for domestic heating.
There is no doubt that we in Britain where the climate is some what warmer have a lot to learn from the Swedes. They have set a green example that can be used to illustrate that a world without global warming is possible. What seems eco-revolutionary in the UK, is just part of Swedish common sense.
