Please join The Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center and Europe Center, in partnership with the United States Department of Energy and the Embassy of Sweden in the United States, on Thursday, March 31, from 12:00 – 1:30 pm EDT, to launch the Sweden-US Green Transition Initiative. Panelists will discuss opportunities for the US and Sweden to accelerate the energy transition and the role of the private sector in pushing climate action forward.

The objective of the Sweden-US Green Transition Initiative is to accelerate Swedish-American partnerships in the green transition. The aim is to drive sustainability and to establish Sweden as a key partner for the US to transition towards a low carbon economy. The Green Transition Initiative will build on, and expand, Sweden´s existing activities and partnerships in the US within the green transition sector, ranging from the power sector, to transportation, heavy industry and sustainable buildings. The initiative will partner with the private sector, academia, innovators, and stakeholders on the federal and state level. The Green Transition Initiative is a joint initiative by Business Sweden, the Swedish Energy Agency, Sweden’s innovation agency Vinnova, and the Embassy of Sweden in Washington.

In both Sweden and the United States, a key lesson learned has been the importance of the private sector in both enacting where government action is lacking and pushing governments to create the regulations that steer markets in the right direction on climate. The demands from private investors that businesses align themselves with net-zero objectives under the ESG umbrella has produced tremendous growth in the green economy while also requiring action from regulators to guard against “greenwashing.” Meanwhile, corporate-led initiatives like the First Movers Coalition, which pledges business leaders to procure new decarbonizing technologies to guarantee a market for them, and Sweden’s Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT), a forum in collaboration with India for industry leaders to partner with the public sectors on solutions to decarbonize the industrial sector, also stand out as private sector-led actions for which governments can offer support.

Panelists will discuss the role of the Sweden-US Green Transition Initiative in driving the green transition as both governments and the private sector seek to ratchet up their climate ambitions at the national and international scale. Please join this conversation via the web application Zoom, which is accessible through your web browser, the Zoom desktop or mobile app, and by phone. If you wish to join the question and answer period, you must join by app or web.

Agenda

Welcome remarks by

Keynote remarks by

Julie Cerqueira
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of International Affairs
United States Department of Energy

H.E. Annika Strandhäll
Minister for Climate and Environment
Government Offices of Sweden

A conversation with

Robert Andrén
Director General
Swedish Energy Agency

John Boesel
President & CEO
CalStart

Emma Nehrenheim
Chief Environmental Officer
Northvolt

Andreas Regnell
Senior Vice President, Head of Strategic Development
Vattenfall

Genevieve Saur
Researcher IV-Mechanical Engineering Vice President
National Renewable Energy Lab

Moderated by

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