- Coping with climate change issue Swedish view
An interview with the Environment
Minister of Sweden
Sweden is one of those countries where high importance is given to the environment-related issues. Sweden has been assisting many countries in the field of environment protection. Though there is no specific cooperation between Pakistan and Sweden in the field of environment at the moment yet both sides are eager to have such cooperation. Sweden is all-agog to help Pakistan overcome the environmental problems that unfortunately are on the rise.
This scribe had a chance to interview Mr. Kjell Larsson, the Swedish Environment Minister. Mr. Kjell Larsson talked about a wide-range of issues relating to environment protection, global warming etc. Here are excerpts from his interview. He also underlined the priority areas of the Swedish government in the environment sector. The Minister, among other things, also expressed his desire to have cooperation with Pakistan in the environment sector.
On Global Warming
The most important problems we are facing are the
global warming i.e. climate change, which is an area where I have put a
lot of efforts and emphasis. We have many different methods to address the
environmental related issues. Most important is that we are taxing the
emission of carbondioxide. Let me tell you that Sweden was one of the
countries in the world that had introduced this sort of taxation. Another
method, which we have adopted, is to attract local investment for
sustainability. Many of these grants go to projects, which are aimed at
decreasing emissions of carbondioxide. In total we have spent around 500
million dollars for such investments.
On Kyoto Accord on Environment and the US
United States says two things about the Kyoto agreement. One thing is that it is unfair because the developing countries do not have commitments. Our answer to that during the negotiations has been that its true that developing countries have no quantified targets of their emissions but they have an obligation to work to reduce these emissions.
It is quite natural that this is a problem that has been created by the industrialized countries. Some 75 to 80 per cent of such emissions come from the rich countries. The rich countries must first show their willingness to take action against global warming. Then we will have to discuss with the developing countries whether they should also take on such challenges.
Another argument from the Americans is that this will damage the US industry. I think of course there is a cost in controlling the greenhouse gases but the cost has to be borne by all countries. Traffic is increasing day by day. Let me tell you that the traffic is the most difficult part when you are going to control greenhouse gases emissions. We have different approaches. First is that we have taxed the petroleum products heavily. The amount, which we get from the taxation, is used on various environmental projects.
The second is our support for technical development in oil to make better fuel for the motors. For instance we have a project with the Swedish car industry where we have put into a lot of money to join research programme to jointly develop environmentally better parts. We have an agreement with EU and all car manufacturing countries of the world that they are going to reduce carbondioxide emission by 25 per cent till 2008.
We have quite extensive development cooperation with
many countries. An important feature of the development assistance is of
course environmental protection and this is something quite natural
because environment and poverty are so closely related that you cannot
solve the poverty problem without also working on environment and vice
versa.
On European Union Presidency
During its Presidency of the European Union in the first six months of this year, Sweden has made the environment and sustainable development one of its priorities, alongside employment and enlargement of the Union. We have attached a good deal of importance to imparting greater impetus and depth to EU efforts to promote a better environment. Another key task has been to ensure that at the European Council summit in Goteborg in mid-June, the heads of state and government were able to adopt a strategy for sustainable development within the EU. In addition, we have sought to place the objectives and targets of the EU’s sixth environment action programme firmly at the core of the environment action programme firmly at the core of the environmental dimension of the sustainable development strategy. I am gratified to note that these aims for the Swedish presidency have essentially been achieved.
The EU now has in place a clear, vigorous and monitorable environmental action programme that will guide its efforts in this field over the next ten years. The programme contains objectives, timetables and strategies that are designed to reverse unsustainable environmental trends within ten years. The Goteborg European Council adopted a sustainable development strategy which gives an impetus to all sectors of society to continue their efforts to take due account of the environment which focuses essentially on the key problem areas — climate change, the transport sector, the public health aspects of environmental problems, and our dependence on chemicals.
I am convinced that we now have the powerful set of tools we need to build sustainable societies — in Sweden and the European Union as a whole. Now we can translate the words into action — for the sake of our children’s and our grandchildren’s futures.
On the Quality Objectives
A new bill replaces the previous 170 goals with fifteen quality objectives, which define the necessary future environmental conditions. The new system will be regularly monitored and evaluated, using a system of indicators.
There used to be around 170 Swedish environmental objectives, however, never organized in a systematic fashion. It was difficult to assess what progress had been made towards them. A few years ago, the Government of Sweden adopted an objective: to hand over to the next generation a dynamic but sustainable society in which the major environmental problems have been solved. In the spring of 1999 the Swedish parliament adopted without reservation, fifteen environmental quality objectives proposed by the government. At the same time, it called on the government to present, as a coherent set of proposals, all the interim targets that would be required to attain the fifteen objectives within one generation. The government’s environmental objectives committee, comprising representatives of all the political parties with seats in parliament, later presented a report, The Future Environment — Our Common responsibility.
The government goal is that sulphur emission should continue to fall by at least 7,000 tonnes a year, a bigger reduction that Sweden has pledged in international negotiations and agreements. Emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds are to be cut by 44 per cent by 2010, compared with present levels.
In order to play their part in achieving the fifteen objectives, Sweden’s government offices — the various central government ministries — are to introduce an environmental management system. That will be a tool for systematizing activities in the environmental sphere, and consists of an environmental policy, environmental goals and an action programme.
An environmental policy and environmental goals have been in place for the internal administration of the government offices since 1999 and a corresponding action programme was established in 2000. The decision extends environmental management to decision making and related processes. The idea is to ensure that environmental effects are taken into account in a consistent manner in these processes. Environmental management has an important part to play in promoting ecologically, economically and socially sustainable development.
One consequence of the decision taken is that
proposals for government bills and ordinances (subordinate legislation)
will now have to include an assessment of what environmental impacts the
proposals could have if they are implemented. IT has also been decided
that an information and training programme aimed at the staff concerned is
to be launched soon.
On Attainment of Long-Term Goals
To attain long-term goals, such as Sweden’s national environmental quality objectives, interim targets are needed, but there also needs to be a monitoring and evaluation system, together with indicators which show what progress has been made towards the various goals. The Swedish government has proposed such a system in its Environmental Objectives Bill. The idea is to be able to describe using a limited set of indicators, the progress being made towards each of the environmental quality objectives. To achieve the goal of a society with no major environmental problems one generation from now, everyone must play their part — government agencies, organizations and companies and also private individuals.
Sectoral responsibility has long been viewed as a key strategy in Swedish environmental policy. Its importance has also been highlighted in conjunction with the elaboration of an EU action programme for sustainable development. The idea is that the authorities, firms and organizations operating in any given sector of society should assume responsibility for the environmental problems, which that sector causes. They can do this by defining specific sectoral goals, for instance and taking steps to ensure that agreed measures are actually implemented.
In several cases, collaboration agreements have
already been entered into between Swedish environmental authorities,
sectoral organizations. One example of this concerns the disposal of
sludge from sewage treatment plants. It has to be said though that at
present sectoral responsibility is still in its infancy.
On New Environment Action Plan
One of Sweden’s aims during its EU Presidency has been to secure the adoption of a new environment action programme for the Union. The programme will form the basis for EU environmental policy, setting out the objectives to be achieved over the next ten years. According to the Commissioner for the Environment, the new action programme should be concrete and it should be accessible to EU citizens. Unlike its predecessors, it should also be legally binding.
At the most recent meeting of EU environment ministers, the European Commission proposal for an environment action programme was amended on a good many points. What the ministers did was to incorporate in the programme some of the objectives and guidelines included in the strategy for sustainable development that was to be considered at the European Council meeting in Goteborg.
The change made to the action programme means that we now have a solid foundation on which to build the EU’s environment policy. We have ended up with a better.
