How does Sweden's government want you to save energy?
In a new campaign launched by Sweden's Energy Agency, people living in Sweden are being encouraged to cut down on hot water and electricity.
"Our ambition is to reach a broad audience," Energy Agency department head Gustav Ebenå said. "To households at first, we're aiming this to a lesser extent at businesses, even though the advice and tips are applicable in an office environment, for example".
Those living in Sweden will see the new campaign popping up on public transport, on radio and TV ads, as well as on social media in the coming weeks.
Under headlines like "Turn down the temperature indoors. Now we're helping each other to save electricity," and "Think about what you're using electricity for. Every saved kilowatt hour makes a difference," Swedish households are encouraged to do their part to lower their energy consumption and avoid an energy crisis.
"Our motto is that every kilowatt hour counts," Ebenå said. "Every contribution makes a difference and the sum of every small effort will be a significant impact."
The campaign follows last week's crisis package from the EU where politicians agreed that energy usage should be lowered in all countries by five percent during the most critical hours of the day.
Sweden is not the only country to introduce a campaign to encourage residents to save electricity. Finland recently launched a campaign to encourage residents to cut down on time spent in the sauna, Spain is encouraging residents to turn down their air conditioning and French authorities have decided to close swimming pools.
Depending on how the situation - and the winter - develops, the Energy Agency have not ruled out the possibility of using a sharper tone.
"It may be the case that we have to adopt a sharper tone and go harder, and be more blunt with our message," Ebenå said, "but with a bit of luck, this will go a long way".
The hope is that the campaign will lead to Sweden's energy usage decreasing by a few percent, at least, so that planned power cuts won't be necessary this winter.
"If this means that we can get the 5-10 percent usage which means we don't need to carry out planned cuts, that would be great," Ebenå said.
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"Our ambition is to reach a broad audience," Energy Agency department head Gustav Ebenå said. "To households at first, we're aiming this to a lesser extent at businesses, even though the advice and tips are applicable in an office environment, for example".
Those living in Sweden will see the new campaign popping up on public transport, on radio and TV ads, as well as on social media in the coming weeks.
Under headlines like "Turn down the temperature indoors. Now we're helping each other to save electricity," and "Think about what you're using electricity for. Every saved kilowatt hour makes a difference," Swedish households are encouraged to do their part to lower their energy consumption and avoid an energy crisis.
"Our motto is that every kilowatt hour counts," Ebenå said. "Every contribution makes a difference and the sum of every small effort will be a significant impact."
The campaign follows last week's crisis package from the EU where politicians agreed that energy usage should be lowered in all countries by five percent during the most critical hours of the day.
Sweden is not the only country to introduce a campaign to encourage residents to save electricity. Finland recently launched a campaign to encourage residents to cut down on time spent in the sauna, Spain is encouraging residents to turn down their air conditioning and French authorities have decided to close swimming pools.
Depending on how the situation - and the winter - develops, the Energy Agency have not ruled out the possibility of using a sharper tone.
"It may be the case that we have to adopt a sharper tone and go harder, and be more blunt with our message," Ebenå said, "but with a bit of luck, this will go a long way".
The hope is that the campaign will lead to Sweden's energy usage decreasing by a few percent, at least, so that planned power cuts won't be necessary this winter.
"If this means that we can get the 5-10 percent usage which means we don't need to carry out planned cuts, that would be great," Ebenå said.
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