Putting on weight to run the marathon

The difference in views on climate policy is abysmal between the government and the opposition.

This became clear in SVT’s party leader debate, where Ebba Busch (KD) compared the government’s policy to a marathon.

– They don’t understand the climate issue, says MP leader Daniel Helldén.

During the SVT debate on Sunday, the government received harsh criticism for its climate policy.

No one believes it, said Center leader Muharrem Demirok.

– The researchers don’t believe in it, business doesn’t believe in it, nobody believes in it. What is being done now is to courageously send the entire climate bill to the next generation, who will carry this on their shoulders, he says.

– The best thing you would have to do now to get access to climate policy is to introduce a scrapping premium on this government.

Sprint – or marathon?

Energy and Industry Minister Ebba Busch then had the chance to give her view on the climate policy that Sweden has now and will continue to have.

– The left side seems to see the climate issue as a super sprint. We see the green transition as a marathon. If you want to lose weight, smartly, then you can starve yourself.

– But then you won’t be able to run the whole race. Then you have to eat right and right now Sweden is “bulking”. We’re putting on a little more weight, but we’re doing it to give ourselves a better chance of reaching net zero in 2045, five years before everyone else.

The government’s own calculations show that emissions will increase, mainly because it has chosen to scrap the reduction obligation.

It is the first time in a very long time that Swedish emissions are increasing.

After the debate, Aftonbladet asked the Minister of Energy and Industry to develop his reasoning.

You described the government’s climate policy as saying that it is good to increase emissions and then reduce them later, what does the logic look like in that?

– In terms of the fact that it is completely unreasonable that we should destroy the private finances of households, drive private individuals into personal bankruptcy because we pursue an unsustainable climate policy.

– That is what we are changing. Unfortunately, this means that emissions increase a little now in the long term, but Sweden improves its chances of reaching net zero before all other countries in the entire EU. That is the important thing. That we get down to zero first. Not that we get very much down in the short term, but have smashed our chances of reaching net zero.

In what way does increasing emissions now improve Sweden’s chances of reaching net zero?

– By pursuing a realistic energy policy that leads to us increasing the conditions for electrifying the transport sector and our heavy industry.

Kristersson: Be careful with similes

Ebba Busch’s boss, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M), did not fully agree with Busch’s analogy, but stands behind the same principle regarding climate policy.

– You should always be careful with similes, but the reduction obligation, sky-high prices for petrol and diesel, which was almost the last government’s only idea, when you abandon it then emissions increase in the short term from car traffic. But we are now changing the prerequisites for electrification, says Ulf Kristersson.

Helldén: They don’t understand

The Green Party’s spokesperson Daniel Helldén was not impressed by Ebba Busch’s reasoning about first increasing emissions and then reducing them.

– It is an absurd reasoning. Everything you release now will remain in the atmosphere. So it’s not the goal in itself that you have to reach, it’s not that you have to get down to a certain weight, but it’s everything that happens along the way, he told Aftonbladet after the debate.

– She doesn’t seem to understand that and that’s probably the entire government’s dilemma, they don’t understand the climate issue.