Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Communications Maud Olofsson with Ambassador Barzun at the launch of SAGA

SAGA, or the Swedish-American Green Alliance, expands the focus of the bilateral cooperation beyond alternative energy to the full range of sustainability and clean tech, and moves beyond the government to government relationship to encompass actors at every level – researchers, entrepreneurs, policy makers, legislators, activists, industry, NGOs and academics to name a few.

Speaking at the launch, Minister Olofsson stated, “the challenges in the areas of environment, climate and energy are enormous and need to be tackled from a broad front.  But if we do this, we can turn these challenges into possibilities for new technology, new services and new companies.  We want SAGA to be a broad and open cooperation where different types of actors from Sweden, the United States and elsewhere can meet to develop the solutions of the future to energy and environmental problems.”

Ambassador Barzun agreed, adding, “To meet our urgent climate challenge we must spread ideas faster, and the best vehicle ever devised for this is still story telling.  We want to develop and share success stories around sustainability -- and do so as quickly as possible -- in order to carry our common SAGA forward."


In order to celebrate the positive connections and advances, the SAGA story website was also announced (http://sagastory.blogspot.com), a portal in which all may submit their own chapters in the green relationship.