Sweden’s Centre Party presents green plan

“Fossil free” and “renewable” are key words in a new environmental programme adopted by Sweden’s Centre Party during its convention on Saturday.
The programme states that the Centre Party will work towards Sweden using only renewable energy within a generation. The aim is to halt nuclear power and uranium mining, as well as to ban oil extraction and hydraulic fracturing, or so-called fracking. Further, Sweden’s transport system should be completely fossil free within a generation, the party said.
However, the party has not defined how many years constitute a generation and neither the environment minister, Lena Ek, nor the energy minister, Anna-Karin Hatt – two leaders within the Centre Party – could or wanted to pin this down, Swedish news agency TT reported.
“We do not want engage in a numbers exercise. There was a time when we were preoccupied with making detailed plans for different types of energy. It didn’t get us anywhere. It stifled the Swedish energy debate,” said Hatt.
“What’s important is that there is a possibility, within quite a limited time period, to become a 100 percent renewable society. Now we can focus on control measures,” Hatt added.
The Centre Party also wants to introduce a tax on chemicals as a way of phasing out dangerous chemicals and to introduce a ban on substances that affect the hormonal systems, such as bisphenol and parabens.
The environmental programme also includes suggestions to introduce municipal vetos on uranium prospecting and to increase compensation for animal owners affected by attacks by wolves and other predators.