The Local, Sweden's news in English
11th September 2007

Sweden is to increase spending on measures to combat climate change, the government has announced.

An extra billion kronor ($147.5 million) will be allocated between 2008 and 2010 to climate research, energy efficiency programmes and support for alternative fuels.

Both domestic and international research projects will benefit from the money; among the Swedish recipients will be a new national wind power centre.

The spending package, which will be part of this autumn's budget, was presented on Tuesday morning by Industry Minister Maud Olofsson, Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren and Agriculture Minister Eskil Erlandsson.

Olofsson said the new money represented a major investment in combating climate change. She emphasised the importance to mix projects in Sweden with initiatives overseas:

"These include the agreement signed with Brazil to cooperate on bioenergy, as well as a similar agreement recently reached with the United States," she said.

Of the one billion kronor spending package, 96 million will be spent on initiatives overseas. Sweden plans to cooperate with China, India and Ukraine on clean technologies.