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Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Swedish Forests: Promoting Forestry, Capturing Carbon, and Fueling Transports

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Energy, Policy, and the Environment

Part of the book series: Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation ((STHE,volume 6))

Abstract

Sweden is a land of forests. In fact, almost 60% of the surface area is covered by forest (both productive and nonproductive). Since the end of the nineteenth century, these woodlands have primarily been utilized by the forest industry but reindeer husbandry in the north and tourism and recreation, including hunting, berry picking, and other local, customary activities also exploit the forest landscape. Ownership is highly diversified. Of the estimated 23 million hectares of productive forest land, some 40% is owned by large forest companies and the government and approximately 50% by some 350,000 small, nonindustrial, private owners.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The total export value of forestry and forest products makes up about 10% of all exported products from Sweden, and about 4% of Sweden’s GNP (Swedish Forest Agency 2008). Pine and spruce are the most common species (39% and 42%, respectively) and also the most important for forestry and the forest industry. Production centers on paper and cardboard and, to a lesser extent, wood production and bioenergy (SOU 2007: 60).

  2. 2.

    First-generation methods use traditional ways of fermentation or esterfication, whereas second-generation methods use different high-tech enzymes, microorganisms or gasification techniques (Jonsson 2007; SOU 2004, p. 133).

  3. 3.

    Motor biofuels became tax exempt in 2004. New legislation was passed in 2005, making it mandatory for larger gas stations to offer customers at least one biofuel alternative. This resulted in the establishment of numerous ethanol pumps throughout the country. The government also enacted a green car bonus. In many municipalities, green cars were offered free parking or exemption from congestion charges.

  4. 4.

    Different biomass gasification techniques and black liquor gasification were also mentioned as potential contenders.

  5. 5.

    A quick glance at some recent titles is illustrative: “Growing Fuel: The Wrong Way, The Right Way” (2007); “The Clean Energy Scam” (2008); Biofuels: Is the Cure Worse than the Disease? (2007); Another Inconvenient Truth: How Biofuel Policies are Deepening Poverty and Accelerating Climate Change (2008).

  6. 6.

    A review of the forest industry’s periodical Skog & Industri (previously Skogsindustrierna) in the last 9 years indicates a skeptical or highly ambivalent attitude toward rising biofuel demands.

  7. 7.

    In the case of motor biofuels, it should be clear that state support in terms of research and development, funding, subsidies, favorable regulations, tax exemptions, etc., will become increasingly controversial if the transition from first- to second-generation biofuels takes longer than predicted, if resistance to first-generation biofuels spills over to second-generation biofuels and if second-generation biofuels fail to deliver full-scale solutions that manage to stand the test of market competition. In their article, Ullmanen et al. (2009) expect what they call the Swedish biofuel “niche protection” to be discontinued due to the growing strength of a global “anti-biofuel discourse.”

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Acknowledgments

Portions of this text were initially compiled for a preliminary report under a EU COST-Action on Forests project FP0703 on climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation in European forests, later included in a working paper within the research program “Future Forests” (Ellison and Keskitalo 2009). Other parts were written within the research project “The Fuel of the Future?” (funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas). The research program “Future Forests” (funded by Mistra, participating universities, and the Swedish forest industry) has provided the funding for the re-working of these contributions into the present chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Economic Geography, Umeå University, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden

    E. Carina H. Keskitalo

  2. Forestry in Rural Studies Unit, Department of Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden

    E. Carina H. Keskitalo

  3. Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Jenny Eklöf & Christer Nordlund

  4. Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS), Thunbergsvägen 2, Uppsala, Sweden

    Christer Nordlund

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  1. E. Carina H. Keskitalo
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Correspondence to E. Carina H. Keskitalo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Social Sciences and Philos, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Marja Järvelä

  2. , Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Aalto University, Aalto, FI-00076, Finland

    Sirkku Juhola

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Keskitalo, E.C.H., Eklöf, J., Nordlund, C. (2011). Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Swedish Forests: Promoting Forestry, Capturing Carbon, and Fueling Transports. In: Järvelä, M., Juhola, S. (eds) Energy, Policy, and the Environment. Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation, vol 6. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0350-0_8

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