Sweden has had a dedicated energy research and development programme since 1975 and has regarded energy innovation as an integral part of energy policy. We believe that innovation will provide new solutions in the form of products, processes and services that will enable us to meet the energy and climate challenges with greater flexibility and higher cost efficiency. The possibility to join MI in 2015 was therefore very welcome. Global challenges need global efforts.

Through MI, Sweden has chosen to double the parts of our energy R&I that focus on funding for researchers and industry to work bottom-up with solutions to energy challenges and which at the same time support long-term and transformative research and development. This is a part of the total Swedish Energy Research and Innovation funding that is closely related to the goals and the approach of MI.

We have also engaged actively in a number of Innovation Challenges and in the MICall. These initiatives have provided solid platforms for international collaboration in areas that are crucial for meeting our challenges. We believe researchers and entrepreneurs are important for the development of a sustainable energy system and have participated in both years of the MI Champions programme. We have also contributed to the Avoided Emissions Framework and the 1.5C Compatibility Framework.

The Swedish efforts supporting small and medium sized companies in the energy area with product and business development has increased substantially since 2015. Applying the methods developed within the Avoided Emission Framework, the companies supported can be estimated to have the potential to decrease the global emissions with more than a billion tons of CO2 equivalents annually. This is of course an estimate and a potential, not a prognosis, but still shows the magnitude of our efforts.

The Swedish City of Malmö was the venue for the third Mission Innovation Ministerial, hosted and arranged by the European Commission, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and the Nordic Council of Ministers. The Ministerial included many interesting discussions as well as a large number of side events.
Sweden is a proud member of MI and looks forward to continued collaboration.