oil-free eh?
So Sweden won't have any asphalt, various foams, plastics, assorted lubricants, butane, paraffin wax, tar, crayons, somee inks, some paint, certain cosmetics, and a few hundred other things?

They are truly an altruistic peoples......

They speak Swedish, who knows what they're really saying?

they've got twelve years to go.... very possible. synthetics are a booming industry.

I'm envisioning a massive energy crisis.

The country became nuclear-free in the early eighties. Sweden is also not a strong candidate for either wind or solar power. While they may opt for hydroelectricity, it is hard to argue that dams damage the environment significantly less than oil/gas exploration and processing. (I'm using the W C Bennett Dam and the subsequent near-complete destruction of the Peace-Athabasca delta system as an example here).

Seriously! Biodiesels create just as much CO2 emmisions to create/process as oil, so I'd really like to see what happens out of this.

Did you read the article, or are you deliberately ignoring the repeated references to fossil energy?

Oh, I read the article. I was just being silly regarding the poorly written headline.

I don’t understand why people doubt this so much. Europe, especially northern Europe - is way ahead of everyone else when it comes to living a more environmentally friendly life and keeping a modern life style. It essentially comes down to how selfish you are and how much are you willing to forfeit in favor of a greater good. No, I’m actually wrong on this one. In truth, the greater advantage of peoples and countries like Sweden is that they don’t have oil of their own and so the major drive when it concerns change is economy: find another source for energy and save a LOT of money.
We’ve seen examples of many people in very poor countries who’re using wind power to light their houses – why not take it to the next level?
Wind is free, the sun is free - oil isn’t free and it damages everything it touches. If half the houses in a city had solar panels and the other half had energy provided by windmills it would power the whole city. Now apply that principle to a whole country.
In my country (I live in Europe) a recent experience tried to satisfy part of one village’s energy needs with electricity windmills. They were predicting the village would forfeit about half of the energy they bought but they ended up having enough to power the whole town and generate a surplus big enough to sell to other neighboring villages. Imagine if all the people in this particular village drove hybrids – no need for oil at all.
As for materials like tar, butaine, some inks, plastics, etc – there are alternatives. For example, you can recycle many forms of plastic and reuse it. I’m sure every country in the world has enough plastic right now that they don’t need to make more of it.
Besides, there are many other substances which can replace it. I know of a company in the Netherlands that sells an ice cream container which melts off into a harmless liquid. The material also contains plant seeds so you can just toss it out your window to your back yard or into a vase and in a couple of weeks you’ll get a new plant. You’re not just enjoying an ice cream, you’re planting a tree and helping out on purifying the air around you.
Tar and asphalt? That’s being naïve. Romans built roads and many other structures which endure to today and they didn’t use tar or asphalt. There are other materials out there, we just have to find how to use them.
Cosmetics? Are you kidding me? Never heard of the Body Shop, have you?

I hope the Swedes succeed. I’m sure every other EU country will follow and maybe the rest of the world will too.

Do try to understand. 99% of people here got it. My comment was a joke on the poorly written and misleading headline. As Galoot pointed out it is just oil for energy that is planned to be replaced. They don't plan on getting rid of the 1000's of items that are made fully or partially from oil.

The few items I listed are just a handful of products that are made from crude oil. Going completly oil-free will take quite a bit more technological innovations. A bit more than melting ice cream containers.

whats funny about the english language is it allows many rooms for interpretation. The headline made sense to me, fitting the article's content, and yet your point is equally valid. but why so cynical? an entire country steps forward to declare they plan to do some good, for once, in a severely f-ed up world, and you wish to criticize the wording of the headline? as if the journalist who wrote it is in any way working hand in hand with swedens law makers? what?

Ok, first I can read... so I read the post where you mentioned you were being kind of ironic and understood it, I'm not a (complete) moron. But you still sounded a little too serious and the trouble you took to mention the few items that need oil to be made got me thinking you're skeptic about the whole thing and yes, cynical.
Will it take more than a few innovative ideas to get rid of oil all together? Of course. But I like to think that 'melting ice containers' are a very good start. If people don't face this (being oil-free) as a possibility, it will never happen.
Be positive -I mean, what else can you do these days?