Take Sweden's lead

July 6, 11:41 AMLA Energy Policy ExaminerAlexander Lennartz

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Role mode

Here are a few quick backgrounders:

Population of Sweden: 9,045,389
Population of Los Angeles: 9,862,049

Economy of Los Angeles [*if counted as an individual entity] World Rank – 16th
Economy of Sweden World Rank – 33rd

World’s Greenest Countries Sweden– 2nd
United States [Los Angeles has worst air quality in the nation] - 39th

On July 1st, Sweden assumed the EU presidency and will lead the 27 nation bloc for the next half year, but the country has already assumed a world leadership role in environmental stewardship and sustainability. There are lessons the Southland can take from this Nordic country in order to improve the quality of life in the area.

The statistics above are meant to point out the similarities and differences of Sweden and Los Angeles County. In terms of population, the two regions are almost the same. Both have substantial economic power, but LA County produces more wealth than the whole of Sweden. The biggest disparity is in the environmental department. If Sweden was at the head of the class Los Angeles would be the underachiever.

The reason for this is cultural. As shown by the statistics, LA has more money flowing through it than Sverige, but many politicians claim greening the cities and implementing stricter energy measures is too expensive. The Swedish example belies this, but since the majority of Americans do not yet take energy efficiency seriously, false statements like this continued to be accepted with little resistance. When efficiency improvements are proposed, in order to pass, they are more often than not significantly watered down and bring little substantial change.

This cultural gap is set to widen when the next generation of Swedes and Americans come of age. In an very insightful piece by Euronews, the Education Ministry of Sweden has made teaching sustainability and innovation mandatory curriculum, starting at the age of five years old. By the time these children graduate their equivalent of high school they will have had well over a decade of practice in environmental design and innovation. With an R&D team staffed with people like these, it is no wonder the founder of IKEA is worth over $50 billion dollars.

Some environmental and energy awareness is promoted at the elementary school level in LA county public schools, but there is no curriculum. LA schools are not providing the classes to teach the next generation of green professions: planners, engineers, architects, etc. This puts these children behind their Swedish counterparts, who can also speak fluent English by the time they get their diploma. In a globalized world, this education gap has the potential to become a serious problem. With much future business coming out of the developing world, it will be difficult for Americans to beat out Europeans for projects where sustainability is a requisite.

Many adults in LA county do not take energy efficiency seriously (denying climate change is still socially acceptable in the US, not so much in Stockholm) so naturally children do not attach much importance to it either. The US culture needs to change in the fields of energy environmental policy and education to play a big game of catch-up.