Background

Parliamentary decision on environmental objectives

The Swedish Parliament adopted 15 national environmental quality objectives in 1999. These objectives are to be achieved within a generation (20–25 years). A 16th objective, on biodiversity, was adopted in November 2005.

The primary objective of Sweden’s environmental policy is to hand over a society to the next generation in which the major environmental problems have been solved. Environmental impacts must be reduced to sustainable levels.

Responsible authorities

There is a responsible authority for each environmental quality objective. Since the objectives describe environmental states that are to be achieved by environmental protection programmes, the authorities have been instructed to propose interim targets and evaluation measures and to describe how the objectives are to be achieved.

Proposals submitted to the government

The Environmental Objectives Committee reviewed the authorities’ proposals and presented its report Tomorrow’s Environment – A Shared Responsibility to the government in June 2000.

Government bills

The government presented its bill The Swedish Environmental Objectives – Interim Targets and Action Strategies in the spring of 2001. The bill, which specifies time-defined interim targets for each environmental quality objective, was passed in autumn the same year.