Swedish govt ditches environment ministry, leading to shock, uproar

Swedish govt ditches environment ministry, leading to shock, uproar

The decision of new right-wing Swedish government to scrap its Ministry of Environment has caused uproar, with campaigners saying the move will set back the country's green agenda by 35 years.

The minority coalition government, which won a narrow majority in Sept 11 elections, is formed of the center-right Christian Democrats, Liberals and Moderates, and has negotiated parliamentary support from the right-wing Sweden Democrats.

This week, the coalition agreed a positive stance towards nuclear energy and indicated its intention to construct new power station reactors, reported Euronews, while Bloomberg reported that the nationalist Sweden Democrats do not support the country's goal of net-zero emissions by 2045.

On Tuesday, new Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderate party, named his Cabinet and appointed Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch as the new Minister for Energy, Business and Industry, and Liberal politician Romina Pourmokhtari as the Minister of Climate and Environment, with Pourmokhtari working under Busch rather than leading her own ministry.

Leader of Sweden's Green Party Per Bolund said the country would have no dedicated environment ministry for the first time in 35 years, Euronews reported.

"It is impossible to describe more clearly how little this government values the environment and the climate. This is a historic decision with devastating consequences for environmental issues," he said.

Par Holmgren, a Green Party member of the European Parliament, said: "Expect huge cuts in green funding leading to a devastating impact on climate policies that we, the Greens, worked so hard to put in place."

Green issues in Sweden had been "set back 35 years", said former minister of environment Isabella Lovin, now chairperson of the board at the Stockholm Environmental Institute.

The new Minister for Energy reportedly said previous governments had given environmental issues "too much weight," according to English language Swedish news website thelocal.se.

"If we want to solve climate issues, it's about transforming industry and the transport sector," Busch stated.

New government policy has identified the environment as one of seven priority issues to address in its first year in office, Swedish media reports say.

But there are concerns how the move will affect the country's efforts to meet United Nations Agenda 2030 goals, Stockholm University professor Karin Backstrand told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, as reported by thelocal.se.

"Environmental issues are going to be given a disadvantage at the same time when we have a huge challenge in Sweden when it comes to biodiversity and forestry," Backstrand said. "We won't meet the Agenda 2030 goals on biodiversity."

The coalition has formed an agreement that states energy policy goals are "changed from 100 percent renewable to 100 percent fossil-free", reported World Nuclear News, noting that the policy document says new rules must be introduced that prevent politics from "arbitrarily shutting down nuclear power plants".