The green ‘heavyweights’

There seems to be an almost global consensus about the fact that the Nordic countries ¹ are frontrunners in environment and climate policies (Lafferty and Meadowcroft 2000; Lundqvist 2004; Nordic Council of Ministers 2015; Tobin 2015). Depending on who is asked or what literature one reads, this fact is underpinned by reference to a number of different factors or events, all highlighting this leadership position: The Nordic countries were among the first in the world to establish ministries of the environment (between 1972 and 1987). The establishment of these ministries can be seen as a response to a growing popular concern with environmental problems, and in some cases strong social movements concerned with the environment and the energy supply. This first-mover position led Nordic governments, in this phase dominated by social democratic parties concerned with questions of equity and global solidarity, to assume a global leadership role concerning environmental questions and issues related to sustainability. It is therefore no coincidence that the first global conference on the environment was held in Stockholm in 1972. ² The torch lighting was carried out by the Norwegian Minister of the Environment (later Prime Minister) Gro Harlem Brundtland, who was the driving force behind the influential UN Report ‘Our Common Future’, published in 1987. At the next important global event concerning environment and sustainability, the Rio World Summit on Environment and Development in 1992, Danish Minister of the Environment Svend Auken played an active role in bringing both the UNFCCC treaty as well as the Agenda 21 agreement to the decision phase, and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has recently assumed a very active role in organizing a group of prime ministers to actively engage in the Sustainability Development Goals 2030 agreed upon by the UN General Assembly in 2015.