The Climate goal will not be achieved in one generation, but air quality can be improved if tough measures are implemented in the transport and energy sectors. More concern needs to be shown for the mountain environment by the tourist industry and reindeer herders. Health issues are a major factor to consider in the environmental goals. Chemical substances are a key issue. Sometimes the cultural environment is more sensitive than human health when it comes to air pollution.
These are just some of the pieces of the large environmental goals jigsaw puzzle that is currently being put together by 20 or so authorities to explicitly illustrate how the 15 environmental quality objectives established by the Swedish Riksdag can be fulfilled. The overall objective is to hand over a society to the next generation in which all the major environmental problems have been solved.
"The environmental goals signify a new way of thinking about the environment. The responsibility is now shared by all sectors of society. It is no longer possible just to consider pollution and how it can be eradicated. The main emphasis is now on how we use land and water and the prerequisites we create for production," says Rolf Annerberg, Director-General of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the central authority responsible for co-ordinating the environmental goal initiative.
Twenty of so authorities have now done further work concerning the environmental quality goals. They have established intermediate goals and sector goals, made proposals as to possible courses of action in order to achieve these goals and assessed their chances of success. Several of the goals should be achievable by 2020, a smaller number by 2010. Time has not allowed for the identification of the socio-economic consequences of the proposals. The reports compiled by the authorities have now been submitted to the Government for further examination by the Special Parliamentary Committee on Environmental Goals, which is due to report back to the Government in the summer of 2000. The next parliamentary decision is due in 2001.
"The work of the authorities has only just begun. We will continue the dialogue on what we can do to unify important societal and environmental goals and we must disseminate the debate to the regions, municipalities, industry and the various sectors of society. The process itself is of considerable value," Kerstin Wigzell says, Director-General of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, who, like Rolf Annerberg is a member of the Environmental Goals Committee.
Follow-up and measurable goals
The work with environmental goals signifies a purge of the hundreds of goals that have been established for the environment over the years. There may not be fewer goals when the whole environmental jigsaw is complete, but it will have a more unified structure and we will be able to measure and follow them up. This is important so that the decision-makers can track progress and make any necessary adjustments. For each environmental goal, a way of measuring the driving forces, environmental impact, state of the environment, effects and society measures has been established.
Some examples of measurements from the environmental goal, A balanced marine environment, sustainable coastal areas and archipelagos, are: the driving forces are for example transport that can be measured in terms of the number of harbour visits by vessels. Another driving force is the fisheries and this can be measured in terms of the number of professional fishermen and amateur anglers. Environmental impact can be measured in terms of the number of catches of cod and herring, oil discharges etc. The state of the environment is shown in terms of nitrogen, phosphorus and toxin levels. The consequences for biological diversity are for example the number of wild salmon compared to farmed salmon. A relevant measure to achieve a balanced marine environment might be to construct facilities to take care of shipping waste.
Our cultural heritage, health and the environment
The traditional issues regarding the natural environment are naturally included in the environmental goal reports, for example through the goals on acidification and eutrophication. The National Board of Forestry and the Swedish Board of Agriculture have been working with environmental issues for a long time, as have the Swedish Armed Forces. The new approach is to obtain a more holistic picture of the environment that include the cultural environment, the health sector and housing.
Cultural issues are part of nine out of the fifteen environmental quality objectives, for example Clean air and A balanced marine environment, sustainable coastal areas and archipelagos. Valuable buildings of limestone are being destroyed by air pollution. It is this hazard that has motivated the Swedish Board of National Antiquities to propose a limit values for sulphur dioxide of 5 micrograms/m3. From a health perspective, the limit values could be higher. Further cultural environment goals are to preserve a living society in archipelagos and coastal areas.
Health issues run like a connecting thread through all 15 environmental goals. The intermediate goals include reducing the risk of cancer by, among other things, lowering the radon content in buildings and reducing the benzene content in the ambient air. Allergies and asthma can be prevented by measures to combat nitrogen oxides. Hormone-disturbing substances will have been identified by 2005 and hazardous flame retardants will be abolished.
The goal of A non-toxic environment means increased demands on better knowledge about those substances to be dealt with. Today we know too little about how hazardous these substances are. The proposal is that there will be comprehensive health and environmental information on commodities by 2010, that the risks will be reduced systematically and that the exposure of humans and the environment to substances with particularly hazardous properties will have ceased by 2020.
Goals conflicts and synergies
There are obviously conflicts not only concerning the different environmental goals but also between the environment and other goals for society. It is equally as obvious that there are also synergetic effects that will make solving problems that much easier. These factors are discussed in depth in the report, Co-ordination and goal conflict. Examples of such conflicts and synergies are: afforestation binds carbon dioxide, which is positive in a global warming perspective but may have negative effects on biological diversity; bypasses around towns and cities reduce urban noise and air pollution but increase exploation of the country side, and increase the amount of traffic on the road leading to a rise in total emissions. More recovery of waste also creates more transport, but the benefits to the environment outweigh the drawbacks. Measures within the agricultural sector to combat the leakage of plant nutrients such as nitrogen can lead to raw materials and energy being used more efficiently.
Well-known conflicts between the environment and other sectors include: high tax on fossil fuels which favours energy crops, but burdens agriculture with increased costs for running farm machinery; building fewer homes and saving resources may cause a drop in building standards and lead to fewer jobs; the demand for fuel-efficient vehicles may be unfair to the Swedish automotive industry which produces comparatively heavy vehicles.
Key facts:
The 15 goals are: Clean air, High quality groundwater, Sustainable
lakes and
watercourses, Flourishing wetlands, A balanced marine environment and
sustainable coastal areas
and archipelagos, No eutrophication, Natural acidification only, Sustainable
forests, A varied
agricultural landscape, A magnificent mountain environment, A good urban
environment, A
non-toxic environment, A safe radiation environment, A protective ozone layer
and Limited
influence on climate change.
To the editorial staff: Some of the authorities have issued their own press releases. There are also press fact sheets for each of the 15 goals in Swedish only. The summaries and later the full reports, will be available on the website as well, however only in Swedish.