Safety and environmental issues in focus during 75th session of the Nordic Council – Øresund News Sweden

This week the 75th session of the Nordic Council was held in Oslo, with Nordic prime ministers, foreign ministers and environment ministers attending for meetings and discussions. Issues that were at the top of the agenda included defense and security related to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and Sweden’s upcoming accession to NATO, as well as the environment, before the United Nations COP28 climate conference began in Dubai. End of November.

There were five Prime Ministers and three Heads of Government from the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland, who met in connection with the 75th session of the Nordic Council in Oslo this week. They spoke of each other as Nordic friends facing common challenges in a turbulent time, at the joint press conference. The security issue was further updated by the presence of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. In his opening remarks, he said that Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership would strengthen and deepen defense cooperation between the Nordic countries, but that he did not want to see a “Nordic bloc” in NATO.

– The entire Nordic region in NATO is good. It enhances NATO’s ability to be present in the Nordic region, to defend the Nordic region, as well as to intervene to save our neighbors in the Baltic region. He added that strengthening Nordic cooperation should not mean erecting barriers to other NATO countries Norden.org.

The Nordic region wants to end more plastic in the oceans
In connection with the Nordic Council session, environment and climate ministers from the Nordic countries also met and signed a declaration to put an end to the increasing plastic pollution in the oceans. Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans threatens to almost double over the next 20 years, Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen (Labour) said. Norden.org.

– The Nordic countries are united on a high level of ambition in negotiating a global agreement on plastics. We must reduce plastic production and consumption, ensure safe and circular transportation and end plastic pollution by 2040 to protect the environment and human health.

Ahead of the COP28 international climate summit in Dubai, the Nordic countries discussed joint efforts they could make to achieve progress at the summit. At the meeting between environment and climate ministers in Oslo, the results of three reports were presented in the environmental field, related to plastic pollution, climate-neutral cities, and the political landscape for climate adaptation measures.

Four out of five Nordic countries want to create a ministerial council for transport issues
In the Growth and Development Committee of the Nordic Council there is strong support for the establishment of a ministerial council for transport issues. At the moment, only Sweden does not want to create such a cabinet. The establishment of a council to coordinate transportation and infrastructure projects has been proposed since 2018 and would, among other things, ensure a more efficient and sustainable transportation system, according to the proposal. Since last year’s Nordic Council session, the new Finnish government has been positive about this proposal, but the Swedish government is still waiting. A new analysis of how current coordination between transport and infrastructure planning work in the Nordic countries will be supplemented in February, Reports Norden.org.

(Øresund News)