Swedish Sustainability

In Vaxjo, Sweden, residents emit 3.5 tonnes of CO2 each, the lowest urban level in Europe.

- In Vaxjo and elsewhere there has been a relentless effort to get people out of cars and onto bikes and buses, to redesign housing, to encourage high-density living and to start teaching environmental awareness from preschool.

- The city imposes parking charges on petrol-run vehicles, for example, but it is free for low-emissions vehicles. For Swedish car buyers there’s a new €1000 ($1600) government rebate on every “green” car.

- In 1991 Sweden introduced the world’s first carbon tax, slugging carbon emissions at $US100 a tonne, double the rate economists now suggest would sharply accelerate the development of renewable energy worldwide. Environmental economist, Professor Tomas Kaberger. “Suddenly we had thousands of entrepreneurs looking for low-cost, biological waste products that could be used for producing electricity and heat more cheaply than fossil fuels. They found residues in the forestry industry, waste in the food industry and agriculture and even wet, putrid garbage.”