Week 9: Debaters discuss support for Ukraine and Sweden's climate transition

During the past week, the focus has been on Ukraine among the majority of debaters on Swedish opinion pages. Sweden's climate transition and whether or not the obligation to reduce has also been discussed with clear differences in the opinions of the debaters.

Karin Karlsbro (L), MEP, argues in a debate article in Today's ETC because Moldova is the country, outside of Ukraine, that is most affected by Russia's war of invasion. This is due to gas wars, plans for a coup d'état in the country, cyber attacks and countless provocations on the part of Russia. As Moldova is one of Europe's poorest and smallest countries, Karin Karlsbro believes that the country is in need of help, especially from the EU.

- In order to keep Moldova on its feet while they free themselves from Russian gas, continued support is crucial. The EU must also scrap trade barriers that hit Moldovan apple growers or engineering companies in order for the country to leave poverty behind on its own, she writes.

Mardin Baban and Nick Doggen from Nya Kompisbyrån also address the war in Ukraine in their debate article i Today's ETC. They believe that Sweden must do more to help Ukrainian refugees and that civil society needs more resources from the government for continued work with long-term establishment efforts.

Nils Bildt expresses in his editorial i Svenska Dagbladet that the West should be more helpful and increase support for Ukraine.

- The West should give Ukraine what they need to win, instead of just giving them enough not to lose, writes Nils Bildt.

Sweden's climate transition

In addition to the war in Ukraine, Sweden and the EU's climate transition have been discussed by several debaters.

In a debate speech at the Altinget writes Mattias Goldmann from the 2030 Secretariat that the reduction obligation is central to meeting the climate goals according to several actors - but not according to the Climate Agreement parties. He also writes that Greenpeace underestimates the importance of biofuels for climate change.

- In the issue of biofuels, Greenpeace shuffles the cards, but in the fight for more efficient vehicles and smarter transport choices, we stand united, he writes.

Thomas Morell, vice chairman of the traffic committee and Member of Parliament (SD), is critical of the reduction obligation and believes that the previous SP/MP government's policy has led to Sweden having the lowest growth in the entire EU.

But both the Green Party and the Moderate Party criticize the Sweden Democrats regarding the party's climate policy. Per Bohlund and Elin Söderberg (MP) criticizes SD's perspective on climate change, and in a reply i Aftonbladet counterarguing Christofer Fjellner (M) SD's perspective on the EU's decision to phase out sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035.

- The Sweden Democrats' climate-denying fight against the green transition appears to be completely tone-deaf in the face of the technological development and transition that all developed societies are going through, he writes.