Can Sweden’s 27-year-old climate minister match up to the far right? with Romina Pourmokhtari

Zero: The Climate Race

Bloomberg

Technology, Business, Science

4.7 • 219 Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Sweden is known for its climate ambition, and was the first country to set a goal to reach net zero by 2045. Yet a new government aligned with the far-right Sweden Democrats has thrown that commitment into question. Enter Romina Pourmokhtari who, at 26 years old, became the country's youngest-ever cabinet member when she was chosen as climate minister in October. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi asks Romina whether Sweden will still meet its climate commitments, how her first 100 days in office have been, and what she hopes to achieve on climate now that Sweden is chairing the European council.

Read a transcript of this episode, here.

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green. Special thanks to Niclas Rolander, Lars Paulsson and Kira Bindrim.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Zero. I'm Akshadrati. This week, Romina, Greta and the new politics of climate change.
0:09.0	Sweden was the first country to set a net zero by 2045 target and wants to achieve net negative emissions after.
0:30.6	That sounds great, but there's been political upheaval.
0:34.6	The new coalition government formed in October is reliant on support of a far-right party
0:40.3	that thinks climate change is a myth.
0:47.3	That's Elsa Widding of the Sweden Democrats, who told Parliament in her maiden speech that she didn't
0:54.8	think there was clear evidence of human-caused climate change.
0:59.2	A different government hasn't just led to different rhetoric.
1:02.8	Since the new coalition came to power, the Climate and Environment Ministry has been folded
1:07.4	into the business ministry.
1:09.6	Spending on nature, climate and the environment has been cut for this year and will be reduced
1:13.6	by 60% by 2025.
1:16.6	Despite this, the new Prime Minister, Wolf Christerson, has said that climate is still one of
1:21.6	his government's priorities, and he appointed a new ambitious climate minister, Romina Purmakhtari.
1:28.3	At 26 years old, she became the country's youngest ever cabinet minister.
1:33.3	Romina is a member of the Liberal Party and the daughter of Iranians who fled the country during the 1979 revolution.
1:41.3	She rarely gives interviews in English, and so at the World Economic Forum in
1:45.7	Davos, I sat down with her to find out how her first hundred days in government have gone,
1:51.2	her thoughts on working with the far-right party, how Sweden will meet its big climate commitments,
1:56.8	and what she hopes to achieve on climate now that Sweden is chairing the European Council.
2:10.6	Romina, welcome to the show.
2:12.4	Thank you so much.
	...

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