In a recent address to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, Swedish prime minister Stefan L\u00f6fven promised to deliver on a previous declaration that Sweden would \u201cbecome one of the world\u2019s first fossil-free welfare countries.\u201d Highlighting the necessity of sustainable global development, L\u00f6fven insisted: \u201cWe are the first generation that can put an end to poverty. And the last that can put an end to climate change.\u201d
\nThe country\u2019s goal is more than ambitious. Thanks to policies decades in the working, alternative energy sources are more abundant in Sweden than many other countries\u2014and yet roughly 50% of its power is still produced by fossil fuels. L\u00f6fven has admitted that the goal is lofty, though he\u2019s added that this is the only way for the country to take \u201cmoral responsibility\u201d for future generations and lead the international charge toward sustainability.
\nIn order to completely abandon fossil fuels, Sweden needs to overhaul its public systems and convince its private sector to help develop climate-smart innovations.
\nTo that end, the government is investing some 4.5 billion kronor ($550 million) (link in Swedish) next year in a score of climate-geared projects.
\nMuch of that sum will go toward funding energy storage, solar energy, wind energy, and smart grids. The rest will support clean transportation, like electric buses, and the renovation of residential buildings to make them more energy efficient. A portion of the investment will come from ramping up taxes on petrol and diesel fuel.
\n\u201cWhen European regulations do not go far enough, Sweden will lead the way,\u201d L\u00f6fven said. The country, already light years ahead of the rest of the EU in renewable energy, is also boosting funding for climate-oriented projects in developing countries. Those efforts should earn it some additional boasting rights come December, when the UN meets in Paris to talk about climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a recent address to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, Swedish prime minister Stefan L\u00f6fven promised to deliver on a previous declaration that Sweden would \u201cbecome one of the world\u2019s first fossil-free welfare countries.\u201d Highlighting the necessity of sustainable global development, L\u00f6fven insisted: \u201cWe are the first generation that can put an end to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838],"supplier":[19476],"class_list":["post-29396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","supplier-united-nations-un"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29396"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=29396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}