Sweden actively participates in international work for an improved and sustainable environment, in the Nordic region, in Europe and at the global level.
The long-standing Nordic work for sustainable development is focused on reducing and eliminating the threat to the environment in the Nordic region, including the Baltic Sea area and the Barents Sea area. A major pathway for the load of pollutants in the region is via the atmosphere.
At the European level, the obvious focus is on Swedish membership of the European Union (EU). Within the EU, Sweden’s current priority is on measures against acidification and climate change, work for an eco-cyclic society and on conservation of biological diversity. Control of chemicals is another priority area.
The enlargement of the European Union will be very much in focus in the coming years, and aim of Sweden is to contribute policy experiences in order to raise the environmental standard of the applicant states. The Swedish Government recently launched a proposal for an Ecological Sustainable Europe.
Swedish international commitments and activities include co-operative work together with over 40 other nations in the United Nations Economical Commission for Europe under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (UN/ECE-LRTAP). Other Swedish involvement?s include the Conventions to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea, administrated through the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), and the North Sea and North East Atlantic, administrated through the Oslo and Paris Commission (OSPARCOM).
Co-operation is also established with the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, by means of bilateral and multilateral programmes, exemplified by:
| - The Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Programme, a jointly expressed action among the Baltic Sea countries, to restore the ecological conditions of the Baltic Sea. |
| - Baltic 21 -the creation of an Agenda 21 for the Baltic Sea region- as a tool for managing sustainable development, where twinning arrangements between Swedish municipalities and their counterparts in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia, frequently are used. |
| - Energy efficiency and nuclear safety programmes, including capacity building, technical assistance and investment support. |
At the global level, energy has been made a priority in the work of the Commission for Sustainable Development, CSD, with strong Swedish involvement in the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change and technologies for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. Since energy use is the common subject, the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UN-ECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, they will reinforce each other.
Sweden also has a bilateral programme in support of the phasing out of ozone-depleting substances, in accordance with the Montreal Protocol. Other priorities include the Convention on Biodiversity and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal.
To sum up, Sweden’s active stance and competence in matters of environmental protection for sustainable development stems from the overall aims of Swedish international development co-operation, that include combating poverty, contributing to democratic development and participation, and to sustainable development. Since these targets are interdependent, environmental protection plays an important part in Swedish foreign policy, including trade policy and development co-operation policy.