Showing the way to 2030
“We can see that work on the 2030 Agenda is a top priority in the Nordic countries and the Council of Ministers is in a unique position to support them in these efforts. One important step is to ensure that we, as an organisation, mainstream the Agenda into our own activities. Here, we can build on the positive experience from the work done to integrate a sustainability perspective across all sectors,” says Secretary General Dagfinn Høybråten.
One of the steps the Nordic Council of Ministers will take is to ensure that the wide-ranging project activities under its auspices promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to an even higher degree than before. Other objectives include integrating the SDGs into the organisation's budget and involving the Nordic institutions in activities supporting the SDGs.
“Our work at the Nordic Council of Ministers is very much interlinked with the 2030 Agenda,” says Anniina Kristinsson, adviser on sustainable development and manager of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Generation 2030 programme.“I believe that the work we are doing now will make those links visible and encourage us to come up with new ideas for areas in need of improvement”.
In 2018, all eleven councils of ministers or their committees of senior officials will hold discussions on the 2030 Agenda and identify where the Nordic Region faces the biggest challenges in reaching the SDGs.
“We know that one of the biggest challenges in this field in the Nordic Region is achieving sustainable production and consumption. We hope to mobilise large-scale, multi-sectoral commitment to meeting this challenge within the next few years,” says Kristinsson.
Several of the councils of ministers have already started proactively integrating the 2030 Agenda into their work, e.g. the co-operation programme (2017–2020) for the Nordic Council of Ministers for Fisheries, Aquaculture, Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MR-FJLS) and the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Arctic Co-operation Programme 2018–2021. In the future, all of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ co-operation programmes will refer to the 2030 Agenda.
“The Nordic Council of Ministers for Fisheries, Aquaculture, Agriculture, Food and Forestry has worked hard to integrate the SDGs into its political agenda. This summer, the Council will launch a four-year programme for a sustainable Nordic bioeconomy, which will be based on the goals and will show the way for sustainable development in the Nordic Region’s blue and green sectors,” says Torfi Jóhannesson, senior adviser on the bio-economy at the Nordic Council of Ministers.
