Sweden aims to end oil dependency by 2020

updated 2:17 p.m. ET Feb. 7, 2006

STOCKHOLM - President George Bush may have surprised international observers by pledging in his State of the Union address to break his country’s addiction to foreign oil — but Sweden was already one step ahead of him.

The environmentally progressive Scandinavian nation has announced one of its most ambitious goals yet: to completely end its dependency on petroleum — and do it in the next 15 years.

“Our dependency on oil should be broken by 2020,” said Mona Sahlin, the minister of Sustainable Development.

The target — announced in September by Prime Minister Goran Persson — has been met with applause from environmental organizations, but also with great skepticism from some experts who think the target is unrealistic.

Officials here acknowledge that getting rid of oil completely in such a short time is close to impossible, but the aim is to ensure that Swedes will never be forced to use fossil fuels because a renewable energy source is not available.

“There shall always be better alternatives to oil, which means no house should need oil for heating, and no driver should need to turn solely to gasoline,” Sahlin told The Associated Press in an interview.

The ambitious plan is a response to global climate change, rising petroleum prices and warnings by some experts that the world may soon be running out of oil.

“We want to be both mentally and technically prepared” for a world without oil, said Martin Larsson, a senior administrative officer in the Ministry of Sustainable Development. “A lot of people think that in five to six years, a liter of gasoline may cost 20 kronor ($2.50). That would be a dramatic change, and a hard hit to a lot of households.” Today, the price is around $1.43 per liter.

Persson has said the target will be reached by boosting research on alternative fuels, giving financial incentives for people switching to “green alternatives,” and increasing the annual electricity production from renewable sources by 15 terawatt hours by 2016 — that figure equals nearly one-third of all the electricity used by Swedish industries in 2004. Some tax breaks have already been introduced, while Persson has formed a special commission tasked with finding other ways to create a society independent of oil. The commission will present its first proposals this summer.

As with Bush’s plan, no one is debating Sweden’s good intentions.

“I don’t think this is realistic, but it is a good ambition,” said Kenneth Werling, chief executive of Agroetanol, which runs Sweden’s largest ethanol factory. “Maybe we can build a society that is less dependent on oil, and that is good in itself.”

Sahlin, however, is confident Sweden can succeed.

“Honestly, what is the alternative?” she said. “Wait and see when oil gets even more expensive?”

Sahlin and other experts point to several factors that give Sweden better chances than most countries to phase out oil.

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