Response to interpellation 2023/24:848 on the industry's need for lime
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the industry's need for lime as a necessary input for housing construction and the climate transition 1. L considers the industry to be central to the economy and wants faster, more predictable permit processes to strengthen Sweden's competitiveness 1. L proposes increased appropriations to courts and authorities 1 and emphasizes that raw materials should be produced sustainably in Sweden 2 3. L argues that the government is working to rectify inefficient processes 2 3 and that the investigation proposes legislative changes from July 2025 4. L believes that the government is doing everything they can 4 and argues that S allowed restrictive formulations for uranium 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Mr. Speaker! Isak From has asked the Minister for Energy and Industry what she and the government intend to do to meet the industry's needs for lime and what initiatives she and the government intend to take so that new lime quarries can open so that the lime shortage does not lead to a new industrial crisis.
The work within the government is distributed in such a way that it is I who shall answer the interpellation.
Industry plays a central role for Sweden's economy and contributes both export revenues and jobs as well as sustainable solutions for the climate transition and society's resilience. Lime is an input material that is necessary for ocean liming, residential construction, infrastructure projects, wind power expansion, and the operation of underground mines. Several societal sectors need lime to be able to conduct their activities and production, but also for maintenance and repairs. Therefore, it is important that the industry's needs are met, while environmental requirements are maintained.
Sweden shall reach net-zero emissions by 2045. Through faster and more predictable permit processes, the business sector's climate transition is accelerated, and Sweden's competitiveness is strengthened. To achieve a more modern and efficient environmental review, the government has taken several steps. The bill Steps on the way towards a more efficient environmental review is being processed in the Riksdag now. I also look forward to the conclusions of the Environmental Permit Investigation later this year. The investigation shall submit proposals on how the permit review according to the Environmental Code can be simplified and shortened by making the review more flexible, efficient, and predictable. The government has also proposed that the administrative appropriations for Sweden's courts, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and the County Administrative Boards be strengthened to provide better conditions to work effectively with various permit processes and environmental supervision.
An efficient permit process and supervision were needed to increase the pace of companies' climate transition.
Isak From (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
Now we are going to talk about lime again. Romina Pourmokhtari and I had a debate here on May 14 on almost the same basis. Now I submitted my interpellation to the Minister for Energy and Industry based on the industry's great need for lime and the cost increases that the industry is facing because the lime shortage has become tangible, not least as a result of the process that has been occurring on Gotland, which the Minister is very well aware of.
In the Minister's response, it is missing that SGU has taken a new initiative regarding Gotland: to expand the national interest for limestone quarrying. That is positive. At the same time, it signals that the government sees Gotland as Sweden's limestone producer and that one continues to reject new applications in the rest of the country. It is indeed so, Minister, that we actually would need to increase the basis.
The Minister refers to the processes currently ongoing in the Riksdag. The Committee on Industry is currently commenting on the bill the government has submitted to the Riksdag, which is being handled in the Committee on Environment and Agriculture. The government considers that the motions regarding permit processes, which the Riksdag has directed to the government, can be dismissed.
At the same time, it has started a new ping-pong movement where the government refers cases back to the preparing authorities and where the preparing authorities then make decisions which are then appealed and referred back to the government. This does very little good and instead threatens to prolong the permit processes.
What we can see is that the lime shortage also clearly affects the green industrial transition because lime is a fundamental input in the metallurgical industry and will be enormously important in the production of fossil-free steel.
With a skyrocketing price development for lime, something needs to happen, so my question to the Minister for Energy and Business had been: What is the government going to do in the meantime? Is it the business community's own concern to manage its lime shortage? As it now appears, the government's new law, if it passes, will be some years away. What is the industry supposed to do in the meantime?
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Member Isak From, who is diligently discussing this issue in the chamber with me since it is my area of responsibility. Questions posed to Ebba Busch will not receive answers today because it is I who stand here and answer the questions being asked.
Mr. Speaker! If the member's basic question is how it is that the industry must stand with these major issues now and await the government's work with investigations into permit processes, my question is how it is that nothing happened with appointed investigations during previous parliamentary periods so that one could have avoided the major problems that have now arisen. We work as quickly as we can to rectify the problems that arise, not least with the inefficient permit processes that cause things to drag on and create such a ping-pong situation as the member himself points out.
Mr. Speaker! The member also mentioned that the question is being sent back and forth. It is not the case that the government is sitting with this court case. The member is well aware that I cannot comment on ongoing processes in court, and as far as the government knows, the case regarding Gåsgruvan has not been finally decided. The judgment from the Land and Environment Court has been appealed to the Land and Environment Court of Appeal, and the question is being handled there. This means that I cannot in the same way reason around where the government sees interests for this type of activity. It is, as said, an ongoing court case and an ongoing process. It is therefore the court and not the government that is handling this question right now. This is important to point out, not least because it largely limits the possibility I have to reason around these questions.
Mr. Speaker! The Member also mentioned that SGU in September decided to expand the nationally important limestone area in Slite. One could also have mentioned the more general things that have been done. In the budget for 2024, the government decided on a supplement of 70 million kronor to just SGU so that the agency can develop its work with promoting mineral extraction in Sweden. SGU also works continuously with identifying new and reviewing existing national interest claims for valuable substances and materials. There is, therefore, a more general work ongoing. For the Member to only mention the decision that came from SGU in September becomes a bit taken out of context if one does not also mention all the other things that are being done. There is, in fact, a very active work regarding the capacity Sweden has to work with mineral extraction.
Not least, the ping-pong situation – a very appropriate designation for what arises – is one of the fundamental problems. When seeking permits for many types of activities in our country, the process is not purposeful but complicates things for job opportunities, competitiveness, and Swedish companies. The government will rectify this, not least through the large investigation currently underway, where the directives take a much broader grip than in the work that has been done so far by various governments that have sat in power.
Isak From (S)
Mr. Speaker! Regarding the legislation that has applied, I believe the Minister is very well aware that this House has most often reached decisions on it in broad agreement. Then, various legal processes in courts have resulted in precedents that have shifted the issue. We also have a situation where different authorities have had contradictory guidance, and I am the first to sign on to the fact that it needs to be better.
The Minister states in his response that money is being added to Naturvårdsverket and the county administrative boards. That is commendable, but at the same time, large appropriations are being removed from the same agencies, which results in them landing in the negative. This naturally leads to the question of how the agencies should prioritize their core task. It is clear: when it becomes a no, the application is usually substandard and is referred back to the applicant for completion. Part of the reason it takes time is that the applicant then does not provide the completions. This cannot be blamed on either the courts or the agencies. It needs to be clarified.
I agree with the Minister that the process regarding Gåsgruvan is ongoing, and the Minister therefore cannot comment on it. On the other hand, other projects have landed on the government's desk that the government has actually rejected.
With the situation we have today, it is absolutely necessary that SGU expands the national interest on Gotland if it is to be possible at all to break more limestone in Slite in the area in question. Whether it will be possible, we do not know yet. We also do not know when limestone can eventually be delivered from that area to the industry.
What the industry, not least the steel and mineral industry in northern Sweden, demands is access to lime and that the increased prices be met. If one cannot buy their lime in the surrounding area, then import and longer, more expensive transports become the solution one has to look at. I believe that neither this government nor the previous one considered that the best solution to achieve the climate goals would be longer and more expensive transports with greater emissions in order to provide our industry with necessary input.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Mr. Speaker! Thanks to the member! I share much of what is put forward regarding that this is inefficient and unproductive. One might even say that it is un-Swedish to complicate this to the extent we do for all those operations that want to operate within Sweden's borders and contribute to the production of things and items, not least minerals and metals, which are needed for the transition taking place in Sweden.
We want the various types of raw materials that we need in Sweden to be sustainably produced and preferably also produced in Sweden, where we have a high environmental standard and high requirements for both environment and health in the processes. We know that the Swedish mining industry has a very high standard, is very environmentally friendly and very safe, and that it is good to avoid large imports from other countries. It is precisely for that reason that we must change the way we work.
We know that what the industries present as the biggest problem is that it is too complicated to conduct their operations in Sweden. One is sent back and forth in ping-pong situations between authorities, courts, county administrative boards, and so on. That is, at least in part, the reason why the government is reviewing how the permit processes are conducted fundamentally. This has not been done so far; instead, one has looked at different methods to "tweak" the issues regarding permit processes. One has not taken a broad approach to how the processes are conducted and what effects it has when one works in the way one has done until now.
We must be able to ensure that processes are improved without doing so at the expense of environmental quality. When there is such room, I think it is very important to work as quickly as possible. The Government has, of course, proceeded with much of the work that was initiated during previous mandates, even though we do not think those are sufficient measures. Parts of that work are being handled in the Riksdag right now.
It is, therefore, very positive that many of us are aware of the problems, but I also think it can be worth considering what the reason is for us having ended up here. It is, among other things, that from the governments' side, one has not wanted to make tough trade-offs between different public interests and has not wanted to tackle such difficult issues. We are now seeing the result of that.
The government, of course, follows all ongoing cases closely and is very keen to ensure in various ways that Sweden will be at the forefront when it comes to the production of all the raw materials that are needed. That the potential exists is something positive. In Sweden, we know that these raw materials can be sustainably produced and live up to high environmental requirements. That is positive. Of course, the government is working to ensure that the processes run better and so that one does not continue to end up in the situations one ends up in today, not least because of the legislation and the grounds one needs to work from within the mining industry in Sweden.
Isak From (S)
Mr. Speaker! It is still somewhat incomprehensible that the government does not choose to pick the low-hanging fruit. There were several completed proposals that the government could have moved forward with, but now they choose to redo everything from the beginning even though the processes work in large parts. If all of the applicant's underlying documents are correct, there are great opportunities to achieve success. Then there are conflicting interests, just as the Minister touched upon a little. There are colliding national interests where one considers themselves to have the same right - or greater - when it comes to mineral extraction.
The government shall review the entire legislation, come back and achieve a change. In the meantime, the industry is left with higher costs. It is quite clear what political priorities entail. This government's political priorities mean that one subsidizes fossil diesel from Saudi Arabia while penalizing and increasing the costs for raw materials for the mining industry and agriculture and counteracts the green industrial transition. That is also a political priority. One puts up obstacles to this. What we are discussing now is when the industry in Sweden shall get access to more lime that is mined in Sweden.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Mr. Speaker! Let me be very clear regarding the image being presented here that the government is standing and stamping, has appointed a large investigation and is causing delays. There is a government bill which is a step on the way towards a more efficient environmental review that is currently on the Riksdag's table for a decision. We have, therefore, delivered the investigation's proposal to the Riksdag to take a position on.
There is also a government review investigation that has presented its proposals. Among other things, it is intended to give the government an altered possibility to review questions regarding permits according to the Environmental Code if the goal or the matter involves clear political trade-offs. Work is ongoing on the government's side to analyze the investigation's report in order to subsequently refer it.
The investigation proposes that these legislative changes shall enter into force on July 1, 2025, so the claim that the government is standing still and doing nothing in the meantime cannot be more incorrect. We in the government are doing everything we can, with small steps and with large ones.
If one is so terribly concerned that the mines cannot operate, the question is why the Social Democrats, who maintain that it "works" to a large extent, as the member chooses to express it, allowed formulations such that uranium shall not be handled in the way that Sweden has done traditionally. This was changed because the Green Party was part of the cooperation.
It is something that I think the Social Democrats can reflect on for the occasion when they get power again in the future. Will we return to a situation where the mining industry is given tough conditions that are very expensive to live up to, in addition to the permit issues that already existed with various prohibitions against different types of mineral extraction? This, I think, becomes an interesting question moving forward.
Until then, the government is actively working on moving forward with what exists and works, but also on doing things right from the start.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.