The region of Kristianstad is a farming and food-processing powerhouse in southern Sweden that effectively no longer uses fossil fuel for heating. Over the course of the last decade, Kristianstad's government has orchestrated a conversion from mostly oil heating to various "green" fuels like biomass, food processing waste and wood pellets.

It is so easy to think "Impossible!" when some environmental policy experts suggest that countries should cut emissions by, say, 20 or 30 percent by 2020, but some methods for drastically reducing emissions do exist, only that they come with economic costs (at least in the short term) and require a political commitment.

Many parts of Europe have figured out how to heat with much less fossil fuel than before. Heating is in fact a relatively low-hanging fruit in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There is the example of Kristianstad, of course. But there are also other kinds of innovations like passive houses and trash-fueled district heating programs.

Could towns elsewhere follow the trend? And if not, why?

(Source: Green Heating? Not So Impossible After All [New York Times])