Long-term vision lacking

June 3, 2014, Jönköping, Sweden – During the opening plenary of the
World Bioenergy Conference in Sweden, the Leader of the Social Democrats in
Sweden, Stefan Löfven, stressed the need to pick up the pace of development and
implementation of sustainable measures.

According to Löfven, we all agree that we need to build
a sustainable place to live, work and travel. It’s an ecological, economic and
moral issue. Growth cannot take place in a dead environment – we must be able
to look our children in the eye and say we have not dropped the ball. The cars
we produce today should be the last ones to run on fossil fuels and yet we’re
not in a position to be able to say that.

We have the resources, extensive expertise and we have the
opportunity to create broad support, he said. A sustainable society would bring
energy independence, a global climate solution and jobs but we need to have a
long-term vision that looks at the new technologies in terms of being a climate
solution and write the laws around that vision.

Lawmakers haven’t kept up with the progress in the industry,
he said, thus punishing innovators. They should focus on the benefits of
technology rather than focusing or supporting a particular product or
technology. This sentiment was repeated later by Michael McAdams who said the
market should be the one picking the winners and losers rather than lawmakers.

Löfven stressed the need for a closer understanding between
researchers, companies and politicians so that they would work together to find
solutions to solidify investments in new research and remove the barriers to
development.

Climate change is not a problem of the future; it is a
question we have to answer today.

For more on the World Bioenergy Conference, go to
www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca .