Nordic Climate Co-operation
The Nordic Region is strongly committed to international co-operation on the climate. Just as in the other environmental areas, the Nordic Region attempts to be at the forefront showing the way forward with a good example. Climate co-operation plays a central role in Nordic co-operation on sustainable development, energy, environmental policies, the Arctic and Nordic globalisation initiatives. Joint Nordic working groups have been set up to attempt to influence international climate policy.
- Photographer
- Johannes Jansson/norden.org
Climate change affects the whole world, but its impact is most keenly felt in the Arctic Region, through the melting of sea ice, glaciers and Greenland's inland ice.
Nordic Climate Group
For several decades the Nordic countries have been working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adjust to climate change. The Nordic Council of Ministers has had a 'Climate Group' consisting of civil servants from the environmental and energy sectors in each of the Nordic countries since 1996.
In the recent years, the group has worked on a number of topical climate- and energy-policy questions. It focuses on following up on international climate agreements, developing instruments to reduce harmful emissions and developing the Baltic Sea Region as a pioneer in climate work.
The work of the Nordic Climate Group will be taken over in the future by the Nordic Climate and Air Quality Group (KoL), and the ad-hoc group COP15 Group.
In addition, work is being done at Nordic level in order to highlight the serious Nordic and global consequences of climate change in the Arctic Region.
Climate and Air Quality Group.
Research and technology
The Nordic Council of Ministers works on environmental technology initiatives that help to reduce emissions of climate gases. For example, the upcoming Nordic Energy Expo will showcase the technologies, institutional structures, policies and methods that make the Nordic Region a global frontrunner.
Nordic co-operation on globalisation also focuses on climate issues, partly through an initiative on Nordic excellence in research into energy, the climate and environment, and also as a result of the need for further knowledge on Arctic climate research.
Theme for the Top-Level Research Initiative
Specific projects
On a practical level, the Nordic Council of Ministers has run a series of projects that draw attention to the importance of climate change in relation to the loss of biological diversity; the effect on Nordic seabird populations; environmental management in a changed climate; and the impact on the Nordic Region of a global temperature rise of two degrees centigrade.
The Region has, via the Nordic Environment Fund, contributed to a series of climate-related investments in the Baltic countries and North-West Russia, including windmill projects. The Nordic Environment Fund is run by the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO), which funds environmental initiatives in the Adjacent Areas.
Nordic Environment Action Programme
The Nordic Council of Ministers is currently working on drawing up a new environment action plan for the period 2009-2012. Pan-Nordic climate co-operation will play a central role in the programme, which will be supplemented by a special Nordic strategy regarding climate change and environment pollutants in the Arctic Region.
This work will be complemented by the other Nordic strategy work on the Arctic Region, sustainable development and energy.
