Response to interpellation 2022/23:75 on environmental monitoring
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the government's budget for environmental monitoring. L considers environmental monitoring to be central to environmental work and that the proposed 390 million are in line with the previous government's levels 1. L wants to see cost-effective environmental monitoring that provides answers to important issues 1 2. L argues that it is not a reduction in ambition but a strict budget where it is desired that agencies prioritize effectively 3. S argues that the budget is reduced by a quarter until 2025 despite that the assignments are the same, which they see as a reduction in ambition 4. S wants Sweden to be at the forefront with green research and argues that more resources are needed 4.
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! Joakim Järrebring has asked me how I intend to ensure that continuous measurement series are maintained so that the basis for follow-up, reporting, and environmental research can proceed with maintained quality.
The Government considers that environmental monitoring has, and shall continue to have, a central role in Swedish environmental work. Therefore, the Government proposes in the budget bill for 2023 that just over 390 million kronor be allocated to appropriation 1:2 under expenditure area 20 for this purpose. The amount corresponds to what the previous Government announced for 2023 in the budget bill for 2022.
Just as Joakim Järrebring points out, environmental monitoring constitutes an important basis for assessing the status and trends for a number of important environmental and climate parameters. The monitoring provides a basis that can be used in reporting on how Sweden fulfills international commitments and EU commitments, monitoring of national environmental goals, as well as constituting a starting point for continued environmental and climate research.
The choice of how the follow-up of the aforementioned environmental and climate parameters shall be prioritized relative to one another is governed partly by identified program areas and assigned agency responsibilities where continuity is important, and partly by new and often time-limited initiatives that the government also decides upon.
I want to see a cost-effective environmental monitoring that provides answers to the most important questions regarding the country's environmental and climate status. Such an approach allows for a continued focus on the pressing environmental and climate-related challenges and provides guidance for the authorities' work and the business sector's opportunity to contribute to Sweden reaching the environmental goals. Therefore, I can assure Joakim Järrebring that I will closely follow how the work with our national environmental monitoring progresses.
Joakim Järrebring (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer. It is, however, with some surprise that I take note of the Minister's answer that she shares my and the Social Democrats' view on how crucial environmental monitoring is to meet the environmental and climate transition. It chafes, so to speak, quite significantly that until 2025 the budget for environmental monitoring is to be reduced by a quarter while at the same time emphasizing how important environmental monitoring is.
Madam Speaker! Before Christmas, I visited the water authority for the Västerhavet water district in Gothenburg. I was there primarily to learn more about the work regarding environmental permits for hydropower, but I also gained new knowledge regarding specifically the importance of increased environmental monitoring linked to the Water Framework Directive. The fact is that Sweden, despite improvements having been made over nearly ten years, continues to receive criticism from the EU and international bodies for deficiencies in environmental monitoring.
Madam Speaker! A few weeks ago, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency was at the Committee on Environment and Agriculture. The agency was then very clear about its concern regarding the effects of reduced funding for environmental monitoring and emphasized that the mandate and funding do not correspond.
As recently as Monday, the Social Democratic committee group in the Committee on Environment and Agriculture visited the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU. Even at SLU, there is concern over the reduction in environmental monitoring. Environmental monitoring and environmental research are, as the Minister knows, mutually dependent on each other, and it is difficult to oversee what the consequences will be for research and innovation in the environmental field with the government's lowered ambitions.
The Minister's answer, Madam Speaker, that she wants to see a cost-effective environmental monitoring should rather be read as that the Minister wants to pursue an ambitious environmental and climate policy but that the Sweden Democrats and the Ministry of Finance have taken the money. We Social Democrats want Sweden to be at the forefront when it comes to green research and innovation. In this way, the environmental and climate transition becomes a success story not only for the environment and the climate but also for jobs and growth in the entire country. But what does the government want?
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! I think the tone is unnecessarily high given that the sums we have presented for the area of environmental monitoring are in line with the same sum that the previous government - Joakim Järrebring belongs to its leading party - had signaled. We do this despite the fact that our government has had to present an unusually tight budget due to the economic situation.
I would rather say that if anything, this is evidence of the ambitious climate and environmental policy that the government intends to pursue and that even that part of the Tidö Agreement has been carefully read by the Ministry of Finance, which, therefore, has not reduced the projected sum that the previous government intended to provide for environmental monitoring. This also applies to the cut that can be seen in the forecast for the upcoming budget. The previous government intended to balance the sums - actually to the crown - at the same level.
Let us not get stuck in crowns and öre. What we actually want to talk about is environmental policy and how we can best carry out environmental monitoring in Sweden and how we ensure that we become aware of the environmental situation in our country.
In addition to what I previously raised in my opening statement, I want to clarify a bit how we view environmental monitoring and how we want to handle these issues. In order to set goals for how our environmental work shall proceed, what political measures we shall implement, and how we shall design all the political and other measures that are needed, we must have an understanding of what the status of the environment looks like.
Environmental monitoring is a very important tool for identifying the status and development trends for a number of different variables and very complex systems that exist in our ecosystems. When we have formulated a goal that the instances are to enable us to reach, environmental monitoring must be utilized as an important tool so that we can assess how effective the measures implemented have been and how well they have succeeded.
I would like to take this opportunity to say something about the important work within environmental monitoring.
Some examples of the projects that the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management is working on right now are how the structure of the benthic macrofauna changes, the fish communities and the health of the fish along the Swedish coast, seals and sea eagles regarding changes in populations and their health status, the vegetation-covered bottoms with both plants and animals as well as life in the sediments.
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency works with bird monitoring, butterfly monitoring, monitoring in the mountains of, among other things, small rodent populations, and programs in the cultivated landscape regarding land monitoring.
This is a very important task, and we look forward to following it. We are truly utilizing the function of environmental monitoring in the best possible way.
I also want to mention that the environmental monitoring inquiry presented its report Sweden's environmental monitoring - its task and organization for good environmental management in the spring of 2019. The proposals in the report are currently being prepared in the Government Offices. I may therefore have reason to inform at a later date how the government intends to take the proposals coming from the inquiry further.
Joakim Järrebring (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for this announcement. I hope that something positive will come out of that preparation.
We may not want to get stuck in crowns and öre, but I still want to be clear that we presented our budget for 2023 quite recently. There, we point out a cautious increase for environmental monitoring.
If there were an awareness of why a budget appropriation is being reduced and if one clearly pointed out what no longer needs to be done, I could have understood the argument regarding an efficient environmental policy linked to environmental monitoring. But when the assignments to the agencies that are to manage environmental monitoring remain the same but with a lower sum of money, it is difficult to interpret it in any other way than that the ambitions are lower.
During my visit to the water authority in Gothenburg, two things became very clear to me. When it comes to environmental monitoring of water, the sum might perhaps need to be septupled in order to manage to report everything that must be reported according to Sweden's commitments towards the EU and internationally. Both the Minister and I also know that many of the proposals within the framework of Fit for 55 are about increased environmental monitoring. It is therefore why I think this debate is important to have.
We Social Democrats point out that environmental monitoring is completely central for Sweden to succeed in its climate and environmental work. More resources are needed for environmental monitoring. The message from the government and the minister is, however, that for the time being, a quarter of the money that finances environmental monitoring will disappear by 2025.
It would be interesting to hear how the Minister reasons on this. Does she share my view that it is a reduction in ambition? If not, can she then point out what it is that we have done so far but will not do in 2024 and 2025?
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! Let me further clarify that I hope that the sum of 390 million that has been signaled for environmental monitoring will be put to use in the best possible way by those who are provided with the funds deciding what is wisest to spend them on and distributing them to. In my opinion, it is wiser to let them make the assessment of how they should perform the work in a more cost-effective manner, which the government is very keen on.
I also pointed out earlier, Madam Speaker, that the government wants to see a cost-effective environmental monitoring. We also want answers to the most important questions regarding the state of the environment as it is in our country so that we can carry out work that is based on the actual situation.
It is important to point out that the monitoring provides a basis that can be reported even in EU commitments. It is good that the EU also shares the view that both the government and Joakim Järrebring express here in the chamber, that we must know what status prevails in order to be able to manage it.
I can give the clear message that we also continue to hope that the focus on the pressing climate and environment-related challenges receives guidance from the work being done in the area of environmental monitoring and that we can in the best way receive a contribution to how authorities but also the business sector should work to contribute to us in Sweden reaching our environmental goals. I can assure Joakim Järrebring that I will carefully follow how the work with our national environmental monitoring continues and how the funds are intended to be used to in the best way perform the work.
Joakim Järrebring (S)
Madam Speaker! I share the Minister's view that it is better to let expert authorities decide what should be prioritized when the funds are to be allocated.
The starting point for my question is that it is not about having a more cost-effective environmental monitoring; it is about a saving. It is precisely when one makes savings that it is important that the responsible authority is allowed to make the assessment of what one should continue to do and what one can no longer do.
If the government knew that certain things did not need to be done and therefore reduced the appropriation for environmental monitoring, I would have felt much greater confidence in such an announcement than if it were about an efficient environmental policy. I think it would be appropriate if the minister could admit that it is about a reduction in ambition.
But I will take note of what the Minister said in his previous speech about that the investigation from 2019 is being processed and that something positive may come from it. I am also convinced that the Minister knows that higher requirements will be placed on Sweden to provide more information to the EU within the framework of Fit for 55 and that the increased requirements will not come at the expense of other environmental monitoring.
We will probably have reason to return to discussions on Sweden's environmental monitoring. I look forward to continued debates.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! I can assure Joakim Järrebring that it is not about any reduction of our ambition or will within the area of environmental monitoring. What it is about is that we want to see a more cost-effective design of the work that is to be carried out with environmental monitoring. We share the view that this work is of the utmost importance. We have a very clear formulation in our Tidö Agreement: "Sweden's climate and environmental policy shall be ambitious." This implies that we have an understanding of the conditions that prevail in our environment. Hopefully, this can reassure Joakim Järrebring and other citizens in our country. One does not need to feel any concern over what ambition and will the government has to conduct good environmental work that benefits Sweden and our entire globe.
The summer is an issue that is well-discussed. So it becomes easy when the government needs to lay a tight budget where it cannot expand the investments in all the areas where it would have liked to. One simply needs to review how the work is performed in the best way. I have a high level of confidence that both the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency will be able to utilize their 390 million for environmental monitoring in the best way and ensure that we continue to have a good picture of what condition prevails in our environment.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.