Now, the Minister for Enterprise and Energy Maud Olofsson and the U.S. Swedish Ambassador Matthew W. Barzun have announced a new partnership between the U.S. and Sweden in order to jointly find the tools to address climate change and global environmental problems. The cooperation is called Swedish American Green Alliance - SAGA.
The new partnership is a continuation and extension of the agreement on Swedish-American collaboration in the field of renewable energy, sometimes called the "One Big Thing", which was signed in June 2007.
The cooperation will be extensive and involve multiple stakeholders in Sweden and the United States, among them the Swedish Energy Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Sustainable urban development
Among other things, the partnership will focus on promoting sustainable urban development, with enhanced environmental cooperation between cities in Sweden and the United States. Other areas that will be focused are, for example, electric cars, energy recovery from waste, water treatment technology, sustainable forest management and sustainability criteria for biofuels. The cooperation will also focus on further research and development cooperation between Sweden and the United States.
Cooperation on a broad front
- The challenges in the environment, climate and energy are enormous, and needs to be tackled in a broad front. But if we do things the right way, we can turn challenges into opportunities for new technologies, new services and new businesses. Therefore, we want SAGA to be a broad and open cooperation with different types of players from Sweden, the United States and elsewhere, that can develop future solutions to energy and environmental problems, said the Minister of Enterprise and Energy Maud Olofsson in a comment on the new partnership.
The U.S. Ambassador Matthew W. Barzun agrees with Maud Olofsson.
- In order to meet our urgent climate challenge, we need to spread ideas quickly, and the best way for this is still by telling people about it. We want to develop and share successful stories about perseverance - and do so as soon as possible – in order to bring SAGA forward, said Matthew W. Barzun.
Cecilia Helland