Conquering the Cold: The Swedish Blueprint for Zero-Carbon Living

Once dominated by a reliance on fossil fuels (heating oil), homes and buildings in Sweden have been utterly transformed by heat pumps. In less than two decades, the country almost entirely phased out oil- and electric boilers and introduced heat pumps as the clearly best choice. Today more than 60% of all single-family homes are heated by a heat pump. Greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by more than 90% in the heating sector, efficiency has been greatly improved and, remarkably, at the same time the use of electricity for heating has decreased. This presentation will describe how the transformation took place and the benefits it generated in the process. There are important lessons here for Canadians.