Sweden, 2020: the world’s first oil-free economy

Could you imagine a world without oil? A car running without petrol? A country working entirely on clean energy? Well, the Swedes have.

In October 2005 the Swedish Minister for Sustainable Development, Ms Mona Sahlin, announced that Sweden aims to become the world’s first oil-free country by 2020.

The Swedish government wants to cut-off completely the nation's dependency on fossil energy and switch to clean, renewable energy. That means that Sweden will become the first country in the world to stop using oil. Cars in Sweden will be environmentally friendly and homes will be heated by renewable energies such as biomass or geothermal sources.


Good for the environment, good for the economy

Climate change is changing many people's lives around the planet. Countries are being asked to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in order to avoid a global environmental disaster. But, besides her well-known commitment for a clean environment, Sweden is also going oil-free for economic reasons.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences have warned that global oil reserves will soon begin to become scarce. As the price of oil gets more and more expensive, many analysts are predicting that this will cause a severe economic recession. Sweden was once badly hit by the oil price rises of the 1970s. Now the Swedish government wants to make sure that will not happen again.

"A Sweden free of fossil fuels would give us enormous advantages, not least by reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices. The price of oil has tripled since 1996" said Ms 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 Swedish Parliament has called upon a multidisciplinary committee of experts to receive advice on biofuels and other renewable energies such as wind and tidal power. The group of experts, which is mainly composed by academics, industrialists, car manufacturers, and farmers, have been asked to bring solutions to the government’s target: "Sweden’s dependency on oil should be broken by 2020".


Swedish policy: a model to follow

At first glance, Sweden’s oil-free bid may look overambitious. However, this Scandinavian nation of 9 million people has long had the world’s most impressive record on environmental protection.

Sweden’s steps towards a clean-energy economy started after a national referendum in 1980 where the Swedish people decided to phase out nuclear power. No new nuclear power stations have been built in Sweden ever since. The remaining nuclear power stations will be shutting down in the future.

Paralelly, Sweden has been turning her energy supplies from fossil fuels to renewable energy. In the oil crisis of the 1970s, 77% of Sweden’s energy came from oil. By 2003, oil only accounted for 32% of Sweden’s power supplies, while renewable energy added up a 26% of Sweden’s energy needs.

During the past years, the Swedish government has been encouraging the use of green energy through a series of policies such as tax discounts, investments, and research. The Swedish public sector was actively encouraged to move out of oil dependence and municipalities were given grants to switch heating on public buildings from oil into renewable energy. Lower taxation encouraged drivers to choose environmentally friendly cars, while Swedish carmakers Volvo and Saab started to develop cars running on biofuels. Heavy investments were allocated into research projects on production and distribution of renewable energies such as biofuels and biomass. An Environmental Objectives Council was set up to monitor whether targets were being met. These and many other actions have helped to raise public awareness on environmental issues.

Therefore, Sweden’s announcement to go oil-free does not take anyone completely by surprise. One one hand, the Swedish society has always been commited to a cleaner environment. On the other hand, the Swedish economy knows already by experience the benefit from a lower dependency on oil.

Now all the eyes are looking to Sweden. As oil prices keep on rising and climate change is more and more on the world’s agenda, the Scandinavian country has taken the ambitious step of becoming oil-free by 2020 without building new nuclear power stations.

Is Sweden pioneering a modern energy path to follow?
Will they make it? Will Sweden be able to live without oil?
Debate it in the Scandinavica.com forum..»

Do you want to know more? Visit the Swedish Ministry of Sustainable Development's website. Read also: » Nordic countries rank highest in environmental index » Denmark, the world's leader in Wind Power

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