Sweden to Use Only Sustainable Energy Sources

January 10th, 2007 | Category: Organic Living

The Swedish government is planning to use only sustainable energy sources such as hydroelectric power, wind power, wave power, and biofuels. They currently get more than a quarter of their energy from clean energy sources and planning to be free from oil and other fossil fuels by 2020, reports the BBC. They are committed to making changes which will help the environment as well as their economy.

Maria from Green Options had this to say:

The Swedish government, consumers, and businesses have joined hands and taken the leap to escape fossil fuels completely by the year 2020.

Already, 26 percent of Sweden’s energy comes from non-fossil fuels sources. There are cars that run on methane instead of gasoline, and heat that comes from wood pellets instead of oil. Currently, most of their non-fossil fuel electricity comes from hydroelectric power and…nuclear.

These advances aren’t happening overnight: the Swedish government had to make the policies that brought about these changes, like tax breaks for heating homes with renewable fuel and a green certificate system that requires utilities to get a certain amount of their electricity from renewables. What’s more, motor giant Volvo plans to be the first heavy industry to emit no global warming pollution by the end of this year.

The country aims to replace all fossil fuels with renewables before climate change damages economies and growing oil scarcity leads to price rises.

I don’t understand why Australia can’t do something similar. We have the perfect climate for solar, wind, and wave power and we should be the leaders in producing and improving this technology.