What can Canada learn from Sweden?

The Canadian federal government has the plan to reduce the emissions from heating urban buildings by 2030. Right now, 78% of emissions come from space heating, and half of the Canadian homes are heated with fossil fuels.

Sweden's experience

Martin Forsén, manager of international affairs for NIBE Energy Systems, shared the Swedish experience of environmental transition at a conference in Mississauga, Ont.

In the 1970s, three-quarters of Swedish homes were heated with oil boilers. Today, electric heat pumps have practically replaced heat pumps have all but replaced oil in single-family homes (most multi-family homes rely on district heating).

According to the Swedish Energy Agency, this has led to a 95% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. "It has been truly a great success for us," the expert told those gathered at the conference.

According to Forsén, Canada is now in the first phase of the transition that Sweden experienced around 1994-2000. At the moment, the media tend to portray this technology as "some interesting experience," but even the heating industry is not completely convinced that this is the right development direction.

Forsén said that after 2000, people who had heat pumps installed were sharing with friends and family how pleased they were, saying the devices were saving them money more quickly than expected and providing more comfortable heat. This feedback, along with more subsidies, began to make heat pumps very popular.

Canada's experience

Canada is still in the phase of implementing heat pumps, so there is still a lot of work for the government and the public.

Moe Kabbara, vice-president of the Transition Accelerator, a group focused on how Canada can achieve its climate change goals by 2050, attended Forsén's presentation and agreed that Sweden has overcome many challenges "such as ramping up a new industry, and making a quick transition."

"They were able to do it," he said in an interview Tuesday. — And it really worked in a cold climate."

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It is necessary to say Sweden used oil, while in Canada heating with gas is widespread because it is cheaper. In any case, the really important lesson Sweden can give is that such transition processes do not happen overnight and require a flexible long-term policy.

"It takes deliberate action from not just government but from industry, from different stakeholders," said the Swedish specialist.

These are not the only measures Canada is taking on the road to a green economy. Not long ago we wrote about Ford's electric car project.