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Sweden Passes Bill To Become Carbon Neutral By 2045 (newscientist.com)

Sweden is the first country to significantly upgrade its carbon ambitions since the Paris accord in 2015. The country has passed a new bill committing to cut its net carbon emissions to zero by 2045. New Scientist reports: The law was drawn up by a cross-party committee and passed with an overwhelming majority in parliament by 254 votes to 41. The legislation establishes an independent Climate Policy Council and requires an action plan to be updated every four years. Sweden had previously committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. It already gets 83 per cent of its electricity from nuclear energy and hydropower, having met its 2020 target of 50 per cent renewable energy eight years ahead of schedule. To achieve carbon-neutral status, the country will focus on reducing emissions from transport by increasing the use of biofuels and electric vehicles. It plans to cut domestic emissions by at least 85 per cent, and offset remaining emissions by planting trees or investing in projects abroad.

7 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Huh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They won't succeed. Trump's promises about bringing back coal mining jobs will fail. Those jobs are never coming back because they've been lost to automation. No amount of sabotaging environmental regulations will bring those jobs back.

    Also, much of the actual reduction of carbon pollution falls to the state and local governments. The areas that pollute the most, which are urban areas, tend to have leaders who support environmental regulations. Populous states like California and New York also have leadership that generally favors pro-environment policies. Even the demographics of Texas are shifting and the GOP is losing ground there.

    Trump and the GOP will fail. However, withdrawing from the Paris climate accords have likely spurred on other countries to increase their efforts to reduce carbon pollution.

  2. Re: Huh by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "Trump's promises about bringing back coal mining jobs will fail. Those jobs are never coming back because they've been lost to automation. No amount of sabotaging environmental regulations will bring those jobs back."

    No, the coal jobs are being lost to cheap gas - which right now is reducing US carbon output, Paris or no Paris.

    And Sweden should have no trouble reaching its carbon-free goal because of its large hydro and nuclear baseload.

  3. Passing the buck? by HalAtWork · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Is this passing the buck unfairly to some future politicians or are they actually gaining ground and on track already?

  4. Re:Utterly easy... by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's more like California, if you removed every large town and every city except for LA. 90% of Sweden's population is in the southern third of the state, and the rest has small community and farms in the northern area, mostly along the coast.

    https://www.researchgate.net/p...

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  5. Re: Accounting tricks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sweden produces no oil, but does "make crap tons of money with fossil fuels".

    Sweden is a net exporter of refined oil products to the tune of 378,000 barrels every day. The oil comes in, is refined, some stays and the rest is sold for quite high profits.

  6. Re: Huh by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 3, Interesting

    People there are buying cars based on carbon output, not how much bigger your dick is going to get.

    A lot of us don't even bother owning a car. We have this thing called "mass transit"...

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  7. Re:The law should really be titled: Except... by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    results from all the oil that we export, which is our number one source of revenue for our economy

    What makes you say that? Your own link puts imports of refined petroleum at $4.83B, with exports at $7.22B, for total net exports of $2.84B.

    2% of the economy is serious, but that figure is dwarfed by Packaged Medicaments ($6.22B), Cars ($5.85B), Vehicle Parts ($4.76B) and Telephones ($3.99B) - hardly the number one source of revenue.

    Frankly, I'm surprised armaments isn't on the list. (perhaps hidden in vehicle parts?) I always the Swedish Socialist Utopia was pay for by profits from selling guns for poor people to kill each other with.

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