Response to interpellation 2022/23:159 on the in-depth evaluation of Sweden's environmental quality objectives
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 L considers that current measures are not sufficient to reach the environmental goals and that an in-depth evaluation is important for future priorities 1. 1 L wants to promote sustainable forestry and strengthen property rights, where landowners receive financial compensation for restrictions 1. 2 3 L argues that the government's budget prioritizes efficiency by removing measures with low climate benefit 2 3. 3 L considers that landowners have a responsibility to conduct forestry sustainably and that the government should utilize agencies to design tools for this in dialogue with landowners 3. 3 L argues that there is good support for voluntary nature conservation with respect for property rights 3. 3 L emphasizes that the government continues to invest in the protection and management of valuable nature as well as the marine and water environment 3. 4 L argues that the government is working towards an effective climate and environmental policy through an environmental goal preparation and a permanent initiative to restore drained wetlands 4. 4 L wants to create reliability in the state's initiatives so that landowners can release land in a secure manner 4. 5 6 V argues that the government's policy is passive, that they oppose the EU's restoration regulation and that they are deprioritizing environmental issues in the budget 5 6. 6 V wants to increase resources for compensation to landowners 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! Andrea Andersson Tay has asked me if I assess that I need to take the initiative to implement further measures in the near term, and if so which ones, in order to reach the environmental quality goals by 2030, and whether I share the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's and the Swedish Forest Agency's assessment that stronger governance and incentives are required to increase biodiversity in the forest, as well as how I intend to act based on my standpoint.
Andrea Andersson Tay has further asked me if I intend to work for economic incentives for private forest owners in order to promote biodiversity and carbon storage, and if I intend to work for national policy measures that promote a circular economy in order to reduce the demand for virgin raw materials.
Let me begin by saying that Sweden's climate and environmental policy must be ambitious and effective. We shall reach our climate and environmental goals. Current measures are not sufficient to reach all goals. The in-depth evaluation that has now been presented will be an important basis for future political priorities.
Madam Speaker! The Government intends to actively counteract species extinction both globally and in Sweden by preserving particularly sensitive species and natural environments, as well as by promoting sustainable agriculture and a sustainable fishing and forestry industry that continues to create environmental and climate benefits.
Within the EU cooperation, the level of ambition for the short-term carbon sink in forest and land is increasing. The Government's assessment is rather that active forestry with high growth and the use of products from renewable raw materials provides the greatest long-term climate benefit. Within the EU's climate package Fit for 55, every member state, including Sweden, has a commitment to increase its performance within the LULUCF sector. The negotiations on the remaining parts of this climate package are in their final stages. The Government will return with further measures to reach our climate goals in the climate action plan.
The authorities' in-depth evaluation points to a worrying development and negative trend in our Swedish environment regarding species and habitats. We need to reverse that trend!
The EU's biodiversity strategy has pointed out a direction for the union's collective work to preserve biological diversity. I also welcome the new global framework for biological diversity that was decided at COP 15 in Canada. The framework contains clear global targets that by 2030, 30 percent of areas on land and at sea shall be protected and 30 percent of damaged ecosystems restored. This was an important decision, and it also means that all countries have committed to realizing the set goals and promises. Now we need to analyze the global declaration of intent, which was decided upon at the meeting of the parties, in the best possible way and see how Sweden can best contribute.
The Government considers that a strong ownership and usufruct right is the basis for being able to take advantage of the forest's potential for economy, climate, and environment to an increased extent. The protection of the ownership right shall be strengthened. A supporting part in the issue of strengthened ownership right is that landowners shall receive economic compensation for restrictions in ownership and usufruct rights to the extent that they are entitled to it. Voluntary formal protection should be a fundamental starting point and a primary method of work for the authorities. When decisions are to be made on establishing formal protection of forest, deviations from voluntariness should be more restrictive than today when such is justified. The Government will in all respects and contexts safeguard and work for a sustainable Swedish forestry, with care for future generations.
Andrea Andersson Tay (V)
Madam Speaker! I am pleased that the Minister for Climate and Environment recognizes that current and planned measures are not sufficient to reach the environmental goals. The problem is that it is so desperately urgent. It has now been 24 years since the environmental goals were established, and they actually should have been achieved already three years ago. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's evaluation shows that there is a long way to go to reach most of the goals. A total of 12 out of 16 environmental goals will not be close to being reached even by 2030.
For the climate and biodiversity, the situation is becoming increasingly serious. The results of the evaluation should not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the environmental debate over the last decades. But when one looks at the government's policy in the environmental area, one can sometimes wonder if they have lived under a rock and completely missed how serious the situation is.
I still hope that the evaluation will serve as a wake-up call and get the government to finally wake up. But after the minister's answer, I still wonder what measures the government will take to reach the environmental goals by 2030. Global frameworks and EU strategies are little more than fine words on paper. What really counts is practical action. In practice, the government opposes the promising plans that exist, for example, in the EU's regulation on nature restoration.
Madam Speaker! Functional ecosystems are the foundation of our lives and our welfare. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency states that the loss of natural values that cannot be recreated is an acute problem. Agriculture and forestry are what affect the most endangered species in Sweden, and the cultivated landscape and the forest landscape are together home to more than 75 percent of Sweden's red-listed species. Overgrowth and logging are the biggest problems.
When questions are asked of the parties in the government base about how they will solve the problem, they have nothing else to come up with than to mechanically repeat the same old phrases about strengthening property rights at every turn. But property rights are not threatened and have never been. What is threatened in Sweden today are all the species that can only live in old forests that are not clear-cut.
I asked the Minister if she shares the authorities' assessment that stronger governance and incentives are required to increase biodiversity in the forest. I perceive her answer as her placing the entire responsibility on individual landowners. The Minister says that landowners should receive financial compensation, while at the same time she has just presented a budget that reduces the allocation for exactly this by 30 percent. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency warns that landowners who want to protect their forests will have to wait for several years for compensation. This undermines confidence in the entire system.
Madam Speaker! The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency notes in its evaluation of the environmental goals that our consumption and production have a major impact on the environment and health both in Sweden and in other countries. We need to transition to a resource-efficient and toxin-free society.
I asked the minister if she will work for national policy measures that promote a circular economy and reduce the demand for virgin raw materials. In her answer, she spoke about strategies and visions, and she referred to a number of negotiations on new regulations and directives at EU level.
Certainly, there is much that is promising in the documents, but given the acute situation we find ourselves in, the response nevertheless showed a remarkable passivity on the government's part. Are we to rely on beautifully formulated strategies and visions and contentedly await legislation from the EU? Does the government have no own agency and capacity for initiative?
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! Let me begin by speaking briefly about the circular economy.
This government works to promote resource-efficient circular economy, and we do so through a number of steps. This includes, among other things, what Member Andersson Tay mentioned in his speech, namely that in my response I pointed out that work is being carried out at the EU level regarding bioeconomy, strategy, and other matters. This is not a lack of decisiveness. It is not that strategies, directives, and work carried out in the European Union are insignificant for the development within our circular economy. On the contrary, it is precisely through the EU that we can together establish clear rules of the game for the actors present in the market to actually adhere to a development where we move towards a more circular bioeconomy.
It is exactly how we need to work, that is to say that Sweden, through our presidency, can move the negotiations forward and prioritize the work currently underway to regulate products' sustainability through an entire life cycle or review how we utilize our waste and our recycling in the wisest possible way.
This may not sound particularly interesting, Madam Speaker, when one speaks about regulations, packaging, and packaging waste in the EU. I can understand that from the Left Party's perspective, one would rather hear about money, money, and money and investments in kronor for our environment. But as a Liberal, I see a potential for the EU as an institution to be able to form clear frameworks and rules of the game for the development that is occurring, not only regarding the circular economy but also for environmental and climate policy in general. I believe that the EU is currently the world's best climate and environmental organization where decisions on rules and laws are lacking that move us in the right direction, that actually take us closer to the goals, that do not give, for example, car companies any other possibility than to start manufacturing cars that do not emit fossil fuels. That is how we can in a truly meaningful way influence the development in our world and work against the species extinction and the major problems that exist with biodiversity as well as the current climate crisis.
When it comes to our forest policy, we work from the principle of stewardship and strive to find the most cost-effective measures. It is in any case of the utmost importance for the government, Madam Speaker, that we do not harm our industries and our countryside. We shall, in the wisest possible way, integrate the environmental issue and the protection of our forests through dialogue and in cooperation. Together with active and engaged forest owners and farmers, we can strengthen the country's ecosystems. This is what we mean when we highlight the importance of strengthening ownership rights.
Voluntarism as a basis for the protection of valuable nature provides strong cooperation and, as a result, increased legitimacy which improves the possibility of achieving good results. It is important that landowners receive financial compensation, and it was positive with the investment that previous governments have made on precisely this budget item, which expired in 2022, which Andrea Andersson Tay is certainly well aware of. That is why it looks like a significant reduction. But we will, in many different ways, also contribute with national methods to protect our forests.
Andrea Andersson Tay (V)
Madam Speaker! The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency assesses that climate and biodiversity must be prioritized politically in the coming years. If we succeed in reversing the development, nature can contribute to counteracting the climate crisis and help us adapt to it, but that requires powerful interventions.
In the Left Party's budget for 2023, we propose significantly increased appropriations to strengthen ecosystems and meet the climate crisis. In addition, we have also presented a number of proposals to safeguard nature's ability to store carbon, strengthen biodiversity, and increase incentives to contribute to a green transition in rural areas. We want to increase resources for compensation to landowners who want to protect their forests. We welcome the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's appeal to us politicians to prioritize the climate and biodiversity, and we want many of their proposals to be realized as soon as possible to increase the pace of the work to reach the environmental goals.
The government and the Sweden Democrats, however, have in the Tidö Agreement and in the budget for 2023 clarified that climate and environmental issues are deprioritized. Significant budget cuts in the climate and environmental area in this year's budget hinder the possibilities of reaching the environmental goals by 2030. Not least, the reduced appropriations to protect and manage nature will hit both biodiversity and the climate hard.
Madam Speaker! The alarm bells are ringing louder and louder regarding the biological diversity in Swedish forests. Half of all endangered species in Sweden are linked to the forest. Today, species-rich old-growth forests make up only 10-15 percent of the Swedish forest. County Administrative Boards state that they are forced to allow logging of protected forests because they cannot afford to pay to protect them. The resources for the protection of these forests will decrease even further in the coming years as a result of the government's decisions.
Naturvårdsverket also warns that the reduced resources for the protection and management of valuable nature, in addition to causing irreparable damage to the environment, will also lead to the loss of 1,000 jobs in rural areas. It is difficult to see who actually benefits from the policy that the government and Sverigedemokraterna are pursuing.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! Yes, it is important to protect our forest, and that is something this government stands behind. It is a task that we intend to carry out. It is also a task that we consider to be of great importance.
We share the picture that the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency describes – that we need to do more. We are not on track to reach our goals. It is something that even previous governments had problems succeeding with.
When it comes to the budget, perhaps Member Andersson Tay, but not particularly many others, raised their voice about how low the environment and climate budget was in 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018. In all those years, the budget was lower than the one we have presented, so we have not cut dramatically in our entire climate and environment budget.
On the contrary, this government has simply taken a new grip on the way we prioritize our money and reflects on the greatest possible climate benefit by removing certain measures that we considered did not result in sufficiently reduced emissions in proportion to the money invested. It is simply a matter of conducting a policy that is ambitious but also safeguards efficiency.
The responsibility to protect valuable nature is evident from the forest and environmental policy that we regulate in our common legislation. Sweden has international commitments to protect valuable natural areas, animals, and plants. It is a responsibility that needs to be borne by both the state and all those landowners who conduct forestry.
Landowners and other actors within the forestry sector have a responsibility to conduct their operations in a sustainable manner within the framework of us reaching our national environmental goals. Our task from a political standpoint is, contrary to what Andrea Andersson Tay highlighted that the government would claim, not to leave it as it is and let the landowners decide entirely for themselves how far they want to go in their sustainability. Instead, it is to utilize our authorities, which, in dialogue with forest owners and landowners in a sensible way, can design the tools required to utilize our forests in a sustainable way.
My perception, my strong and firm perception, is that there is and is being developed very good support and guidelines for having formal protection with voluntariness as the basis and in that way through the state work with the protection of nature with respect for property rights and in dialogue with affected landowners. It is important that the authorities strive to have a good dialogue with landowners so that the process for the protection of nature becomes as good as possible.
We need to contribute to ensuring that our forests have high nature values and are protected. In order that landowners are not exposed to uncertainty and ambiguity, the available resources need to be in line with the ambitions, and we need to utilize every invested krona in a wise way. It is also for this reason that this government continues to invest in the protection and management of valuable nature - a total of over 2 billion kronor. Additionally, the government is investing just over 1 billion in the marine and water environment.
The Government intends to actively counter species extinction through the global work taking place at the EU level, where Sweden will in no way slow down but rather utilize the presidency to push forward all the new positive developments that we can contribute to in the environmental and climate work, and to care for what we have already protected in order to improve the status of our nature types and species.
Andrea Andersson Tay (V)
Madam Speaker! When the Riksdag decided on the environmental goals in 1999, it was established that "the overriding objective of environmental work is to hand over to the next generation a society where the major environmental problems are solved, without causing increased environmental and health problems outside Sweden's borders". Today, 24 years later, the next generation is here, and we are still not anywhere near having solved the problems. Nor will we have succeeded by 2030.
Both the Minister for Climate and the Environment and I myself belong to the generation that should have received the gift that a society without climate impact, species extinction, and environmental toxins would have been. We were both children when the environmental goals were established, and we cannot personally be blamed for our representatives wasting away the time and continuing to destroy the environment when they instead should have repaired it. Our responsibility is to make the best of the time we have now.
What is Romina Pourmokhtari doing then? She slaughters the environmental budget and withdraws the resources that would have given us the conditions to reach the environmental goals. The budget for the protection and management of valuable nature is reduced by 1.5 billion kronor. This will have major consequences for biodiversity. It also affects landowners who have themselves shown interest in protecting valuable nature and who are now forced to wait for compensation.
For those of us who are worried about the state of the environment, it is impossible to feel secure with such a government.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! What is the government doing then? asks MP Andersson Tay. Let me explain that.
We are working hard to have an effective and ambitious climate and environmental policy. We have an environmental goals preparation group that has the mandate to propose a strategy with interim targets, steering mechanisms, and measures that can contribute to Sweden's commitments both within the EU and internationally regarding the protection of biodiversity, nature conservation, and the uptake and emission of greenhouse gases within the land use sector. They shall also map synergies and goal conflicts in the work of fulfilling Sweden's commitments and, if necessary, propose political trade-offs. It is a task that I look forward to sinking my teeth into when it lands with the government.
The government has also made a permanent commitment to restore drained wetlands with 200 million kronor per year from 2023. That it is a permanent commitment is very important, because just as Member Andersson Tay wants, I do not want to see us tossing back and forth in climate and environmental policy without there being a reliability in the initiatives and measures coming from the state side that can lay the foundation for landowners and others to release land and do so in a secure way - this in contrast to the temporary commitment that ended in 2022 and which means that we now have much forest to protect but lack the funds.
Rewetting drained wetlands provides manifold environmental benefits. In a wise and effective manner, we hope to be able to work forward from the government's side. There are also a number of assignments regarding forests that the government has submitted to Naturvårdsverket and Skogsstyrelsen following the bill on strengthened ownership rights.
Madam Speaker! I welcome the analysis and the well-grounded proposals that the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has submitted. We will now prepare these proposals within the Government Offices and in the best way safeguard healthy and resilient ecosystems, both for the human living environment and for all the species and habitats that exist on our blue-green planet.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.