First Published on : http://www.thealternative.in/lifestyle/sweden-become-worlds-first-nation-end-reliance-fossil-fuels/
The Scandinavian nation already meets two-thirds of its electricity requirements from non-fossil fuels energy sources, mainly hydroelectric and nuclear.
The Swedish government announced that they plan on spending an extra 546 million USD as a part of their climate change action in 2016. It would be too soon to put a ceiling on the time-frame within which this mission will be completed.
What you may not know is that this Scandinavian nation already meets two-thirds of its electricity requirements from non-fossil fuels energy sources which are predominately hydroelectric and nuclear. The focus will now shift to increasing the solar and wind energy potential, and at the same time, making its transport industry more sustainable. In order to suffice the budget increase, heavier taxes will be levied on petrol and diesel.
The budget will also cover the manufacture of smarter grids, electric bus fleets, subsidies for green cars and on renewable energy storage technology. This quantum leap should come as no surprise since Sweden already has quite an impressive track record when it comes to climate change action. Several cities across the globe are already in the process of making this switch and are eliminating fossil fuels with huge success.
This is about Sweden and all such stories about European nations reducing their dependence upon fossil fuel. The point is that the alternatives they are trying out may be sufficient for their small needs (after all they are small nations) but will not suffice the needs of the world. The primary need is that these so called, ‘developed nations’ should reduce their net energy consumption. The estimates are that they should reduce from half to one tenth of their present consumption. Naturally this can be only incremental. But they should make a start.
I agree with you … if energy demands of these nations (or of any others for that matter) keep rising, no source of energy will be sustainable!
The people in these countries – including in Scandinavia – are reluctant to reduce their own consumption [I am not including the very poor even in these industrialised nations]. Nor do political parties risk enforcing sufficient tax measures to ensure the better-off consume less. So they will improve their energy use relative to GDP but reducing energy use is different and vastly more difficult.
Nagraj