Goodbye petrol and the fumes!

January 27, 2006

SWEDEN: WE WILL BREAK DEPENDENCE ON OIL BY 2020 (January 19, 2006)

The Swedish Minister for Sustainable Development, Mona Sahlin, has announced

plans to break the country's dependence on oil by 2020. Writing in Swedish

publication Dagens Nyheter recently, Minister Sahlin said that Sweden had

the chance to be an international model in being the first government to

break the dependency on fossil fuels. She claimed that, through a series of

carrots and sticks, the country would boost its renewables sector and reach

a state of energy self-sufficiency enhancing both an environmental and

economic advantage. " The whole world is now dreading the problems brought

about by dependence on oil, " she wrote, highlighting the way that the damage

wrought by hurricanes such as Katrina had focused the world's attention on

oil dependency. " The Government is therefore setting a new policy target:

the creation of the conditions necessary to break Sweden's dependence on

fossil fuels by 2020. 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! Old oil price records are

now being beaten at a rapid rate. " She proposed a number of measures to

achieve these goals including: - Tax relief for conversion from oil,

particularly for single family homes, but also public sector buildings to

encourage conversion to renewable energy. - Higher targets for renewable

energy so that the entire energy supply comes from renewable sources. - Tax

breaks for renewable fuels for the transport sector; - Greater research and

new knowledge for a renewable society; - Continued investment in district

heating -- which has increased radically in Sweden in recent years -- and

financial incentives to use biofuels in this. " Sweden has the chance to be

an international model and a successful actor in export markets for

alternative solutions, " Ms Sahlin wrote. " But this requires conscious

investments -- not a reactionary policy that obstructs the transition to

alternative energy sources and investments in the environment of the

future. " " The aim is to break dependence on fossil fuels by 2020. By then no

home will need oil for heating. By then no motorist will be obliged to use

petrol as the sole option available. By then, there will always be better

alternatives to oil. "

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