Abstract
Energy efficiency
Ola Alterå,State Secretary at the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications, Sweden
Both Swedish and EU energy and climate policies highlights energy efficiency as crucial for increasing competitiveness, securing energy supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficiency is a central pillar in the transition to an eco-efficient economy and a priority for the Swedish EU presidency.
The Swedish energy policy stimulates energy efficiency in all sectors – private companies, public authorities and households – by a combination of general and specific policy measures.
The most important policy instruments is the taxation on energy and carbon dioxide emissions, which give consumers and companies price signals that makes it profitable to save energy and switch to renewables. The carbon tax has been instrumental in shifting space heating in Sweden from fossil fuels to district heating based on renewable energy and municipal waste. It has also contributed to the fact that from 1990 to 2008, Sweden has lowered greenhouse gas emissions by 9 %, at the same time as GDP has grown by 48 %. In the same period, the energy intensity of the economy decreased by 27 %. Hence, Sweden has proven that economic growth, energy efficiency and reduced emissions can go hand-in-hand.
Energy efficiency measures are often beneficial from an economical perspective, but progress is still rather slow. This can be attributed to the fact that other barriers than economical need to be overcome. To do this, the Swedish government and the Swedish Energy Agency collaborate with actors at local and regional level as well as with business organizations to increase the awareness among companies and households of possible energy efficiency measures.
In June 2009, the Swedish Parliament adopted the first national action plan for energy efficiency, and in the budget bill for 2010 the Government is investing, for the period 2010–2012, SEK 1.66 billion in various measures to promote more efficient energy use in industry, agriculture and forestry, the construction sector, the transport sector, households and the public sector.