U.S. embassy and consulate websites or www.state.gov.
We’ve gone social!
Follow us on our facebook pages and join the conversation.
29 June 2010
Swedish-American Alliance Tells a Good Story
Trans-Atlantic partnership exchanges green technology and policy know-how
Washington — In Swedish, the word “saga” means a fairy tale, an imaginary story that used to spread from person to person long before the Internet revolutionized global communications. When the Swedish-American Green Alliance uses the acronym SAGA, however, the term carries special weight.
“Just like the old Nordic sagas were told and spread, so must our sustainable success stories be told,” Matthew Barzun, the U.S. ambassador to Sweden, told America.gov in a recent interview. “President Obama has on numerous occasions called on countries to join the U.S. in a global engagement, and what could be a better global engagement than to lower carbon emissions and building a more sustainable future? We think SAGA will be connecting, sharing and helping stories spread.”
The alliance’s frequently updated blog, which is published by U.S. Embassy Stockholm, focuses on environmental news and green technology exchanges between the two countries. The Swedish-American Green Alliance builds on the “One Big Thing” initiative launched during the Bush administration in 2007 to speed up technological invention and investments in renewable energy. That partnership yielded some $200 million in cross-Atlantic commercial partnerships. Under Barzun, who was sworn into office in August 2009, the initiative has been broadened to include bilateral cooperation in every area of sustainability and clean technology, including urban planning and water conservation.
“The United States and Sweden have a lot to learn from each other. Why invent the wheel over and over again when we can work together?” said Ola Alterå, state secretary at Sweden’s Ministry for Enterprise, Energy and Communications. “The cooperation between Sweden and the U.S. is unique, and the fact that we have established research projects where we learn from each other across the Atlantic has inspired many others.” The European Union is among organizations that have praised the two countries’ collaboration on green topics, he said.
Portland, Oregon, a city renowned for its green policies in the northwestern corner of the United States, recently hooked up with the Swedish capital of Stockholm for what both parties hope will be a fruitful relationship. Portland wants to learn how Stockholm gets so many of its residents to bike and how it developed its waterfront. Stockholm is interested in Portland’s successful system of streetcars and vibrant citizen involvement.
“We have the highest number of bikers in the United States and we’re looking very aggressively to get the number up to 25 percent within the next decade or two,” said Noah Siegel, Portland’s director of international affairs. “In Stockholm they’re already over 20 percent. We’re looking at the kinds of things they do to encourage people to make those choices.”
Americans have also traveled to Sweden to study the country’s use of biomass. In May of this year, for example, a group of students from Northern Michigan University (NMU) in the United States traveled to Växjö, a town of just under 80,000 residents in southern Sweden, to learn how biomass can be used for co-generation and heating of homes. NMU and Linnaeus University in Växjö have formed a partnership to foster such student and faculty exchanges.
“Sweden has been concentrating on alternative energy and sustainability for several decades, so we have much to learn from their experience. Swedes can learn how [their technologies and environmental policies] might be applied on a larger scale,” said Michael Roy, NMU special projects consultant.
During the past 40 years, Sweden went from being one of the world’s most oil-dependent nations to becoming a leader in alternative energy sources and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. The country of 9 million depends on hydropower and other renewable sources for 44 percent of its energy consumption. It also has one of the world’s most stringent auto emissions standards. Between 1990 and 2008, Sweden reduced greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 12 percent while at the same time increasing its gross domestic product (GDP) by 48 percent.
“It’s easy to come to the green capital of Stockholm and think that it was always like this, but Sweden went from worst to first,” Barzun said. “Sweden has shown that you can go from a very high dependency on oil to a sustainable energy model.”
Embassy Stockholm, meanwhile, wants to practice what it preaches. The embassy, which spearheaded the U.S. Department of State’s League of Green Embassies, has switched to heating provided by a company specializing in renewable energy sources.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
