by Farah Sayed
Sweden’s Energy Goals
As climate change presents itself as a growing worldwide challenge, certain countries are rising to counter the threat to the dangerous temperature rise. Sweden recently created new policy goals in order to strengthen the global effort. Their goal is to ensure new climate policies for specific mandate periods. Their efforts echo that of other nations in the European Union including Britain, Denmark, and Finland, who have also implemented long term climate policies. Sweden’s goals align with the EU’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80-90 percent. Also inspired form the Paris agreement in December of 2015, Sweden is excited to tackle the issue of emissions.
Sweden has introduced their first goal of cutting emissions by 2045. Every parliamentary group in the Riksdag decided on this except for right wing Swede democrats. They even expect to see progress before 2045 on cutting domestic emissions by 85%. To reach this goal, Sweden wants to build a new reliance on renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power. Planting trees additionally helps regulate the balance of carbon dioxide in the air.
Once catch to Sweden’s new goal is a heavier reliance on nuclear power, in addition to renewables. The government made conditions better for nuclear power production that include lower taxation and new facilities. As a very controversial issue, the production of nuclear power can harm the environment. Nuclear waste can remain radioactive for thousands of years and is a dangerous health concern. Numerous incidents in the past, such as the Harrisburg nuclear catastrophe and Chernobyl accident, show the serious risks of increasing nuclear energy usage.
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Featured Image:
http://www.reuters.com/article/climatechange-sweden-idUSL5N1FN6F2
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