Ministry of the Environment

At yesterdays’s launch of the Equal by 30 initiative, Sweden has committed to working globally for the principles of equal pay, equal leadership and equal opportunities for women by 2030. Minister for Policy Coordination and Energy Ibrahim Baylan is to present measures to achieve these aims.

Minister for Policy Coordination and Energy Ibrahim Baylan yesterday announced that the goal of the Global Lighting Challenge has been reached. Over two years, a number of Swedish and international actors have made commitments to bring more efficient lighting to the market.

Sweden and the European Commission, along with a number of other countries and businesses, are urging more stakeholders to back the measures needed to ensure that the world’s battery production is socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.

Climate change is one of the Government’s top-three issues, alongside jobs and education. The Government has adopted a guest researcher programme under which US environment and climate researchers can be invited to conduct research in Sweden for a period of up to three years.

Halfway into the five-year commitments made at the COP21 climate conference in Paris, Minister for Policy Coordination and Energy Ibrahim Baylan has launched two international innovation competitions: Sustainable Mobility as a Service and Sustainable Local Energy Systems.

The Nordic region will have the most integrated and intelligent sustainable energy solutions. Minister for Policy Coordination and Energy Ibrahim Baylan and the Nordic energy ministers have adopted a declaration on strengthening Nordic leadership in the global energy transition. They also encouraged the Nordic business sector to draw up proposals for promoting Nordic exports of climate-smart clean energy technologies.

In addition to a number of official side events in connection with the ministerial meetings (CEM9/MI-3), diverse energy related activities will take place in the Öresund region May 21 – 24, 2018. Nordic Clean Energy Week is co-hosted by Sweden and Denmark. During the week, politicians, researchers, business and industry will gather to discuss future energy solutions.

On 22 May, the Nordic energy ministers will meet in Lund, led by Minister for Policy Coordination and Energy Ibrahim Baylan, to discuss deepened Nordic cooperation. The meeting will be followed by two international energy ministerial meetings in Malmö and Copenhagen on 23 and 24 May.

Sweden has today made pledges of more than SEK 2 billion towards the Global Environmental Facility. This entails an increase of Sweden’s contribution to the fund of more than 50 per cent for the period 2018–2022, compared with the period 2014–2018.

Opinion piece by Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate, and Deputy Prime Minister Ms Isabella Lövin in The Guardian, 17 April 2018.

Minister for Infrastructure Tomas Eneroth and Minister for the Environment Karolina Skog have announced how the new provisions on low emission zones would be designed. The Government will give municipalities the possibility of introducing three different kinds of low emission zones as of 1 January 2020.

The ‘cocktail effect’ is when the negative sum of two chemicals is greater than their individual parts. The Government is now taking a holistic approach to address the risks of groups or combinations of chemicals by appointing an inquiry.

In June 2017, Sweden’s Riksdag decided by a large political majority to introduce a climate policy framework with a climate act for Sweden. This framework is the most important climate reform in Sweden’s history and sets out implementation of the Paris Agreement in Sweden. By 2045, Sweden is to have zero net emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

On 12 March, Minister for the Environment Karolina Skog invited a smaller group of countries, researchers and stakeholders to a high-level dialogue on how the countries of the world can handle chemicals and waste. Listen to some of the arguments in this video.

In the past few days, Minister for the Environment Karolina Skog and Sweden hosted an international meeting on how the countries of the world can handle chemicals and waste. The spread of dangerous chemicals constitutes a major health risk at global level. Sweden wants to see a global agreement for chemicals, comparable to the Paris Agreement for the climate.

Reduced emissions, increased resilience to climate change, and more sustainable management of water, ecosystems and natural resources. These are some of the goals aimed for in development efforts. In March 2018, the Government decided on the new strategy for Sweden’s global development cooperation in the areas of environmental sustainability, sustainable climate and ocean, and sustainable use of natural resources. The strategy applies for the five years 2018–2020.

Reduced emissions, improved resilience to climate change, and more sustainable management of water, ecosystems and natural resources. These are some of the goals aimed for in development efforts.

Opinion piece published in Politico on 5 March, by Minister for the Environment Karolina Skog

On 12–15 March Sweden will host an international strategy meeting on chemicals and waste. Current global cooperation in the area of chemicals consists of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), which extends to 2020. Intensive discussions are now under way on what will happen beyond 2020. Sweden wants to form a coalition of ambitious countries to bring about a global framework for chemicals and waste, along the same lines as the Paris Agreement for the climate.

Plastic in the oceans is one of our most serious global environmental problems. To tackle both the sources and effects of the problem, the Government has decided on a ban on the use of microplastic in certain cosmetic products, and on a grant to municipalities to clean up plastic from Sweden’s beaches.