Sweden, although at the forefront of the drive to oil independence, sits powerless when industry finds national energy prices a little too high. The Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet reports on Thursday the 31 August 2006 that Rottneros, one of the world’s five largest makers of paper pulp, is closing its plant in Utansjö, in Northern Sweden. The plant will be dismantled and shipped to a country offering lower electricity prices. The move demonstrates the energy vulnerability of many industries, and how a permanent hike in energy prices, stimulated e.g by scarcity of oil, is likely to affect developed countries at least while there are countries offering cheaper energy. Capital and industry simple leave, while whole communities remain behind, unemployed.

The mechanical process used by Rottneros is energy intensive, and uses twice as much energy as the alternative chemical process. On the other hand, less raw timber is used and the process has environmental benefits. The plant is one of the most modern in the group, and can be easily moved and set up elsewhere.

The Utansjö community, which has hosted the paper and pulp industry since 1897, will be absorbing 150 jobless.

Other paper and pulp producers like SCA and the Swedish-Finish StoraEnso may soon follow suit. Both state to the newspaper that they have no plans to invest any further in Sweden. ITPS, the Swedish Institute for Growth Policy Studies - the Swedish Government's agency for understanding growth and for evaluating government policies - estimates 2-4 thousand jobs will disappear every year.

This is at a time when national supplies are unable to meet industry demand. Wood is in short supply, and Sweden is importing 10 of the 90 million m3 of forest it uses.

The move demonstrates that we cannot rely on industry to come up with a solution in the short term to higher energy costs. As managing director, you are bound by the terms of your contract to find a cheaper solution in the first place, not to apply all ingenuity to rework business processes and technology to find a less energy intensive or less environmentally challenging solution. And Government is not allowed to interfere according to EU competition rules. It also shows how any approach to a sustainable use of timber supplies is far off. If consumers demand paper products to a level where forests are depleted, the global force of industry is willing to supply it – without taking any responsibility for future generations ability to use the infrastructure and local natural resources.

Of those countries offering cheaper energy, we can only speculate as to the environmental risks associated with this “cheap” energy. Consumers get no say in the matter as they are left unaware of the environmental and social costs of the paper they are holding in their hands, as little as they are informed of the situation of thousands of workers in the oil industry in the long supply chain from the desert to their local petrol filling station.

The third, surprising display of shooting in the opposite direction to goal is displayed by the Swedish Government's assignment to the road transport and rail traffic authorities. Announced via press release the 20th June, both organizations are to develop a long term plan for sustainable development of public transport in Sweden. So far so good. But they are ordered to prioritize ticket booking, timetable coordination, interchanges and the disabled. Whilst the above subjects are worthy causes they are hardly going to provide Sweden, already highly transport dependent, with a sustainable public transport network. No mention is given of environmental impact of transport, city planning, oil dependency or long term planning for energy vulnerability. This announcement is the third in a series of actions going against the stated intention of creating independence from oil. The first was the oil commission's statement that oil vulnerability was not perceived as a threat and therefore not addressed in their report. The second was the decision to invest in "green" vehicle technology taking the technology optimistic line that an energy source will be found. The authorities have until the 31 of December to produce their plans.

Once again Sweden, the first nation to proclaim its intention to become oil independent, acts disappointingly in a way far removed from what many believed were its true intentions. As reported in the Swedish daily newspapers on the 24th July, the Swedish State are to finance a research and development program to produce better environmentally suited vehicular technology. It is hoped Swedish vehicle industry suppliers as well as other companies will participate in the program to increase the competitiveness of Swedish vehicle industry. The total budget is 800 million kronor, 282 million (35 percent) coming from the State, the rest from the industry.

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Daily newspaper slags off oil commission.
Comments on the oil commission’s report have been very few in the Swedish media. Perhaps because it was released during the holiday period or because the issue is so complex, that in criticising the report you show how much you do not know. SvD, the right wing Swedish national daily newspaper, however, takes the Oil Commission to task for “giving us a vision of wood-burning

The Stockholm oilawareness meetup held its monthly meeting on a farm just outside Lerum. Local landowners got together with Oil awareness members and Post Carbon Sweden members to take a first look at relocalisation possibilities in the area. Follow the link to see photos and meeting notes. http://avbp.net/html/lerum.html

Digging into details to understand Sweden’s oil dependency

 
Most people who start to discover Peak Oil find themselves confronted by their lack of knowledge as to how things work in the society they live in. The good news for those living in Sweden is the transparency of its institutions. The bad news is the work required to cut through all the details to see the bigger picture. Let’s explore the question of the role of energy in the economy.

 

Two statements heard quite often are that the percentage of GDP of energy is growing less. And that Swedes are actually using less energy now than in the 70s. The other thing we often here is that oil independence is easy to attain as a large percentage of energy used is either renewable or nuclear, neither threatened by oil prices.

When is innovate the right strategy to use to address a business or organization challenge? If the challenge is similar to challenges in the past, the sensible thing is not to re-invent the wheel, but use well-known solutions. If the situation is novel and temporary, a quick fix may work. But if the situation is novel and permanent a new approach is called for. As we see it, the world is approaching a novel situation: the end of cheap fossil fuel, an end to endless economic growth and the growing negative effects of environmental degradation on health, agriculture and climate stability. Increasingly, forward thinking organizations like the UK’s Live Work http://www.livework.co.uk/home.html and the US Rocky Mountain Institute http://www.rmi.org/ are suggesting an End-use/Least Cost services approach.

Retford was slow in coming to the realization that

Report from Swedish Energy Conferences

Having recently attended two conferences arranged by the Swedish Energy Ministry and read a good deal in the daily press I would like to summarize my general impressions of attitudes to the energy situation in Sweden. These are purely my own reflections, and not the expressed opinions of anyone in the Ministry or invited speakers.

Basically, there is an “A plan