With soaring oil prices, rising demand, uncertain supply and the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions, energy is in focus and the European Union is calling for coordinated policy.

But the Nordic region — united by history, a shared concern for the environment and a harsh climate which puts heavy demand on power — is divided on energy, not least nuclear power.

When a reactor at a nuclear plant in the Ukrainian town of Chernobyl exploded in 1986 and spewed radioactivity across Europe, the Nordic region was on the front-line: its pristine lakes and forests were polluted and Arctic reindeer meat and lichen contaminated.

Long before radiation on a Swedish power worker’s shoes alerted the world to history’s worst nuclear accident, Sweden had voted to get rid of atomic energy, in a 1980 referendum.

It now aims to break with fossil fuels by 2020, when it also wants greenhouse gas emissions, blamed by many for global warming, cut by 25 percent against 1990 levels.

"We have to transform into a non-oil economy," said Stefan Edman, who heads the Swedish government’s oil dependency panel. "We have very high ambitions, although I don’t think it is realistic that not a drop of oil will be used in 2020."

Sweden has already cut oil use in home heating by 70 percent in the last 20 years and has kept consumption flat in industry since 1994, despite a 70 percent increase in production.

By Simon Johnson
Reuters.com