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Sweden invests another 56 mln USD to reduce emissions

Xinhua, April 6, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Swedish government has plans to invest an additional 56 million U.S. dollars in 2017 to quicken the country's transformation to a fossil fuel-free welfare state, according to a statement issued on the government's website Thursday.

The added infusion of capital to the government's "Climate Leap" campaign, an initiative to kick-start climate warming mitigation measures, is part of the Social Democrat and Green Party budget agreement with the Left Party.

The Climate Leap aims to strengthen local and regional climate initiatives by supporting public and private investments in cities, municipalities, businesses, schools or counties through grants.

So far, one-third of more than 600 project applications have received funding. Projects can be anything from installing charging stations for electric vehicles and conversion from fossil fuels to renewable sources to expanding the production and use of biogas.

Isabella Lovin, minister for international development cooperation and climate, said the Climate Leap has led to investments in charging stations, bicycle paths, even energy conversion in the production of potato chips.

"An additional 500 million krona will allow us to support more and even larger projects," she said.

The Climate Leap and the proposed investment is expected to reduce annual emissions by about 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CDEs) -- the measurement used to compare emissions from various greenhouse gases based on their global warming potential -- or about one-fifth of the total annual emissions from all petrol cars in Sweden, according to the statement.

"This is the biggest challenge of our time. We all bear responsibility for taking care of the environment and the climate," said finance minister Magdalena Andersson.

The grants are generally supposed to be matched by at least 50 percent co-financing from companies, municipalities, county councils, or housing cooperatives. The government is investing 900 million 1.1 billion U.S. dollars for the 2015 to 2020 period. Endit