Sweden Prepares to Lead EU on Climate

clipped from www.worldwatch.org Sweden's low-carbon transformation is on display in the coastal, industrial city of Kalmar. The city of 60,000 is replacing most of its oil, gas, and electric furnaces for district heat with "cogeneration" plants, which burn sawdust and timber waste from the surrounding wooded region. Publicly owned cars and buses have switched to burning either biogas made from waste wood and chicken manure, or an 85 percent ethanol blend from Brazil. Kalmar has become a model for what all of Sweden hopes to achieve. The Nordic country plans to be carbon neutral - releasing zero net carbon emissions - by mid-century, according to Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren. "If you can see the resources you have, you can really make the opportunities," Carlgren said during an event at the Swedish embassy in Washington, D.C., on Monday. "It's not written in the resources. You have to see it in your mind."