Ministry of the Environment

Minister for Environment and Climate Isabella Lövin received the Belarusian Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Andrei Khudyk on 22 May 2019. Mr Khudyk and the Belarusian delegation visited Stockholm and Borlänge to study Swedish waste management experience and discuss sustainable development.

Listen to Minister for Environment and Climate and Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lövin talk about her areas of responsibility, her priorities and the challenges awaiting during this electoral period.

National forestry accounting plan for Sweden from 2012-2025, including a proposed forest reference level.

Nairobi, Kenya, 14 March 2019. Check against delivery.

Today, Minister for Environment and Climate Isabella Lövin and Uruguay’s Minister of Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment Eneida de Léon co-chaired a meeting of the High Ambition Alliance on Chemicals and Waste, with representatives from a number of countries and organisations. Participants agreed on a joint statement to work together for a new, ambitious global framework for chemicals and waste to be adopted in 2020.

The Government today appointed 31 state secretaries at the Government Offices. Former state secretaries have been dismissed from their positions. Most of the state secretaries have previously held corresponding positions at the Government Offices.

This report has been written in accordance with EU regulation 2018/1999/EU on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action. The draft integrated energy and climate plan is a summary of Sweden’s climate change and energy policies and scenarios based on these. The first integrated plan is to be submitted to the Commission at the end of 2019.

Chemicals and waste pose a growing threat to both the environment and human health around the world. The aim of the High Ambition Alliance is to ensure an ambitious new global deal on management of chemicals and waste.

Over the course of two weeks, the UN Climate Change Conference, COP24, has been under way in Katowice, where the focus has been on the formulation of the Paris Agreement ‘rulebook’. At overtime, the countries succeeded in agreeing on a common regulatory framework that will govern how they implement their climate efforts under the Paris Agreement.

The UN Climate Change Conference, COP24, is currently under way in Katowice, Poland. Since Monday, the high-level segment of the conference has been under way, with negotiations at minister level. On Wednesday, the Polish chair announced that Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate Isabella Lövin would be given a special assignment to lead the talks between countries.

Katowice, Poland, 12 December 2018. Check against delivery.

The European Commission has presented it strategic long-term climate vision for the EU. Sweden takes a positive view of the level of ambition in the strategy, with its aim of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Declining biodiversity is a global environmental problem. Species are becoming extinct, ecosystems are being damaged and the interplay between organisms is being disturbed. And yet nature is utterly crucial to people’s wellbeing and prosperity. On 14–15 November, Minister for the Environment Karolina Skog is meeting ministers from around the world at a UN meeting in Egypt to discuss how to reverse this trend.

On Monday 22 October, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances, Mr Baskut Tuncak, presented his first report to the United Nations General Assembly at an event in New York. Minister for the Environment Karolina Skog gave the opening address at the launch and continues to draw international attention to the need for a global agreement on chemicals and waste.

The Government today decided to contribute more than SEK 2 billion to the seventh replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF-7). Sweden will thereby increase its contribution to the GEF by more than 50 per cent for the period 2018–2022, compared with 2014–2018. This makes Sweden the sixth largest donor overall and the largest per capita donor. In total, replenishment pledges total SEK 34 billion (USD 4.1 billion). This decision reflects what was announced by the Government in the Budget Bill for 2018.

On 9 October, the EU climate ministers are due to agree on the EU’s negotiating mandate for the next international climate negotiations. Sweden considers that the EU must work for an ambitious, robust and dynamic framework to implement the Paris Agreement.

A new research collaboration for climate and security will be launched today in connection with World Water Week in Stockholm. The Stockholm Climate Security Hub brings together four Swedish research institutes that are world leaders in the area of climate and security. The aim is to promote knowledge development and policy dialogue in the area, not least to support the UN and other multilateral actors with evidence-based analyses.

As part of efforts to end fossil fuel dependence and achieve Sweden’s goal of reducing transport sector emissions by 70 per cent by 2030, the Government today adopted an ordinance prescribing that consumers receive information at fuel pumps about the climate impact and origin of fuels, such as petrol, diesel, gas and more.

The prolonged heat and drought have impacted many sectors of society. There have been numerous forest fires, the agricultural sector has been severely affected by the drought and groundwater levels have dropped. The extreme temperatures can also cause health problems, especially among older people and the sick. The Government is following developments closely and taking the necessary decisions. The Government Offices is in continuous contact with the responsible government agencies.