Maybe more than any other country, Sweden has gotten serious about cutting carbon and the global fight against climate change, reports ERIKA FRY from Stockholm
Sweden is a country accustomed to long, dark days of winter. There are some days in the half-year season where Swedes in northern regions see no daylight at all. At its balmiest, July, temperatures in the country climb to an average of 18 degrees Celsius (that's sweater weather in Bangkok).
So when temperatures warmed Stockholm to an unseasonable 21 degrees several weeks ago, the city seemed in full bloom - picknickers flocked to its parks and sunbathers, some of whom stripped down to nothing at all, swarmed to the shores of the city's Lake Malaren.
Of all the places on Earth, Sweden is one of the few in which it seems like global warming - Al Gore, be damned - might do some good.
Yet, the Swedes have always been uniquely inclined to preserve their pristine, if chilly landscape, and Sweden, maybe more than any other country, has gotten serious about cutting carbon and the global fight against climate change.
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| Buildings at the Hammarby Sjostad, the "sustainable city" built on old harbour land in Stockholm. VICTORIA HENRIKSSON |
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| Stockholm, a city situated on 14 islands, takes great pride in the purity of its waters. |
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| Ice hotels do exist. This one in northern Sweden melts with the coming summer. |
Even for a visitor to the country, the signs of this eco-consciousness are instant and abundant.
Airplanes touching down at Stockholm's Arlanda airport make "green landings," a scary-sounding, but sworn-to-be-safe, gas-saving measure where pilots cut the engines for much of the plane's descent (they kick them back in right before landing).
Passengers can then speed into Stockholm city on the cleaner, greener (an automated voice on the train even tells you so) Arlanda Express, a high speed train that moves along at 210 km/hour and in 20 minutes covers the commute far faster than cars.
But it's not just a matter of infrastructure and clean technology. Swedes, too, seem to be in on the carbon consciouness; consuming in restrained and environmentally responsible ways that are unusual in most parts of the world, and mystifying (though admirable) to anyone that comes from a big-is-always-better sort of place.
For example, people bike - lots of them, in business clothes and inclement weather. Thanks to a traffic congestion tax and a great deal of national heartiness, Stockholm's streets teem with bikers, a method of commuting that again, mystifyingly remains popular the cold year round.
Stockholm also has its share of ferries, trams, and biogas buses - public transportation that is so easy and accessible that my taxi driver grumbles about 'traffic' (we are delayed more by stop lights than other cars) when a crosstown drive takes 15 minutes.
Even 7-11 stores, which turn up almost as often as they do in Bangkok, do their part, by not bagging things. Sodas come without straws, and bags come with a price.
Recycling bins are everywhere, as is the prevailing sense that one will be publicly scolded if they do not use them correctly. The disposal bins at one residential development I visited were strategically placed for the sake of public policing and came with charts that chronicled the week's errors in waste disposal - noting, say, a soft plastic into the compost bin.
And of course, as is the fashion these days, much is made of emissions and carbon footprints. The national government has committed to a 30% reduction in the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, while smaller enterprises including businesses, government ministries, the airport, and even residential districts have been following suit, and setting similar targets for themselves.
Exporting ecosense
While Sweden has been serious about its own environment for decades, the country has more and more been focusing its energies outward, in an effort to export its environmental sensibilities to places less prepared to take on global warming.
This is particularly true as Sweden readies to take over the presidency of the EU in July 2009, a 6-month tenure in which it plans to push the issue of climate change and significantly, to steer an international agreement on global warming at the post-Kyoto conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.
It's likely this leadership will be based on Sweden's own models of environmental governance, which since 1999, has consisted of a rigorous set of environmental objectives to be met by 2020.
The 16 objectives are broad and ambitious, and aim for things - like clean air, a non-toxic environment, and a magnificent mountain landscape - that would seem just as hard to measure as they might be to attain. Bengt Rundqvist, a Principal Technical Officer with Sweden's Environmental Protection Agency and a member of the Envrionmental Objectives Council, explains the idea behind the objectives, also broad and ambitious in these times, is to "hand over to the next generation a society where environmental problems have been solved."
Sweden's efforts to do so are impressively methodical, with annual reports that track the progress of 72 interim targets and which publish statistics on everything from ammonia emissions to eel recruitment.
Yet despite this, and the country's relatively large commitment in terms of budget, staff, and national interest, even Sweden is struggling to meet its marks. According to the Environmental Objectives Council's 2007 report, it is unlikely Sweden will reach any of its objectives by 2020 without implementation of additional measures. Half of the 16 goals were designated as "very difficult to achieve" even if additional measures are implemented.
Notably, Sweden is worst off on objectives that are strongly influenced by international conditions (Objective 1: reducing climate change, for example).
"The construction and timelines of these objectives were enormously ambitious," says Andreas Carlgren, Sweden's Minister of Environment. "On a national basis, in many cases we could meet these goals, but ultimately the ability to meet them depends on international conditions."
But that of course is not the point. It need not be said how bad it bodes for the rest of the world if even eco-conscious Sweden cannot meet its targets, and if the rest of the world is the cause for that failure.
Carlgren doesn't interpret the news as all bad. While Sweden might not be on track to meet targets on time, the minister believes the country is at least on track to progress. He notes that a handful of the interim targets have been met, that objectives are increasingly supported by "rising trends in budget and societal interest," and most significantly, that economic development has been decoupled from environmental degradation.
Indeed, Sweden's shift towards a low-carbon economy has come at a relatively low cost and also spurred all sorts of green innovation and entreprenuership.
From the development of passive homes (houses so well insulated and sealed up they can withstand Swedish winters without a source of heat) to a chemical-free cleaning treatment (popular at Stockholm's suburban swimming pools, the system saves water, energy and keeps lifeguards from getting woozy off cholorine fumes), a number of Swedish individuals and small business are cashing in with the development of cleaner, carbon-conscious products and technologies.
Meanwhile, older businesses are changing their ways too in an effort to meet the demands of a growing number of eco-conscious customers. DHL, the large international logistics firm (the transportation and logistics industry is collectively responsible for 14% of the world' emissions) is investing accordingly in its Stockholm office to improve efficiency and develop methods of carbon accounting to measure, and ultimately reduce a shipment's footprint.
"We'll lose out economically if we don't deal with environmental matters," said the company's Environmental Officer in Sweden.
Though Rundqvist acknowledges such change is good, he adds "Sweden is making progress, but not fast enough. Economic development is often the greatest threat to the environment, and conflicts between environmental goals and other enterprises need to be examined. There is a need for political courage."
He may be referring to cars. As green as Sweden has become, the country still produces a lot of Saabs and Volvos; and despite all those bikers, a lot of people still drive them - the latest statistics show Swedes have the highest-emitting vehicles in all of the EU.
As 2009 and the globe's next big talks on climate change approach, Rundqvist can only hope that Sweden's car industry - and much of the world - can catch up.
AHEAD OF THE ECO-CURVE
Given its size, Sweden has its fair share of cultural legacies. The Nobel Prize, IKEA, leggy blondes and ABBA, just to name a very few. But as the world heats up over global warming, it's likely this Scandinavian country, long a bastion of environmental progressivism, will have plenty more- in the way of policy solutions and green ideas- to put out on the international stage soon.
Among the more likely:
The next Kyoto?: Sweden, slated to preside over the EU starting in July 2009, is already planning to push climate change to the top of the agenda, and more significantly to help broker an international agreement on global warming at the world's December 2009 conference on climate change.
The rise of biogas: The Swedes, seasoned users of this energy form, are more comfortable than most with the concept of re-using sewage sludge (treated of course) to power buses, cars, and even stoves.
Symbiocities: In a bid to win the 2004 Olympics (they didn't), Stockholm turned an old dirty harbour area into an architecturally, eco-conscious-in-every-possible-way "sustainable city" that is now home to 28,0000 people (and some of the city's most trendy and expensive real estate). Branded Symbiocity, they've already exported the concept of a holistically sustainable cities to locales that include France and China.
Green landings: The pride of Stockholm's Arlanda Airport, pilots in equipped planes make much of their descent with the engines in neutral. It saves lots of gas, and cuts noise pollution.
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