The Green Knowledge Society Summary

This document is intended to provide inspiration regarding the role of the green industries and the life sciences in Sweden’s progress towards a sustainable society. It has been produced in good time for the 2008 research policy bill by the organisations listed below, headed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.

Here we have demonstrated that the green sector has had and still has great importance for the national economy, employment and the sustainability of society. If we wish in the future to consolidate and develop this, and create new green businesses, the state must ensure that significantly more resources are devoted to research and innovation, particularly at such a time as the present, when, whether we like it or not, a paradigm shift is taking place in which biology and life science are beginning, to a greater degree than in the past, to determine the character of tomorrow’s society. The nations and enterprises that apply their energies to developing competence and skills, products, services and enterprise based on the green sector will, in a particularly marked way, contribute to the development of a sustainable world society, while also strengthen their competitiveness on the international arena.

Text: Peter Sylwan in association with representatives of the organisations concerned.