Welcome speech to Baltic 21 representatives

Check against delivery

It is an honour for me to welcome you, members of the Expert group of Baltic 21, to Norway and to the Ministry of Finance. I had the pleasure to speak to Baltic 21 here in Oslo in 2009, and I recognise many of you from that meeting. Then you may know that I have been responsible for our work on sustainable development since our government took office in 2005. Just recently I have got other responsibilities in the government. One important task is to work with improving our tax system, and taxes are also important in supporting sustainable development.

There are a few international organisations working for sustainable development. Your organisation, and in particular this expert group, is special in the sense that government officials work together with representatives from organisations and the private sector.

The way you work; initiating and supporting projects for sustainable development is a very useful approach. I think it is important that organisations from different parts of the civil society are brought together in the work for sustainable development.

A diverse and international organisation such as Baltic 21 contributes to create good ideas and distribute them to decision makers in both the public and the private sector. In addition, you have a role in giving good advice to governments. My government has created an arena for dialogue between government and civil society, called The Meeting Place for Sustainable Development. Over the past few years we have had several very useful meetings.

Sustainable development is central policy to the government. Sustainable development basically requires sound long term policies with respect to the environment, the use of natural resources, the public finances and basic social conditions. In implementing the principle of sustainable development there is a need for coordination between different policy areas. Furthermore we need cooperation with civic society. This is part of the reason why we – as the only country in the Western World – have chosen to make the Ministry of Finance responsible for coordinating the Government’s work on Sustainable Development.

Our strategy, which was updated in 2007, will be revised this year. In this work we invite both other ministries, NGOs, private organisations and individual citizens to contribute.
In Norway we use a broad set of 18 Sustainable Development indicators to monitor whether we are moving in the right direction. The indicators cover ecological, social and economic issues. In line with the Brundtland commission, we see international poverty as one of the main social and economic global challenges. Statistics Norway reports annually on these indicators. Even though we still have challenges, I believe that we can say that the there has been a positive trend in several of the indicators since my government took office in 2005. Indicators related to public the economy and education show a positive trend. The stock of important fish species have grown, water quality has a positive trend, development aid has increased and life expectancy has increased.

The international financial crisis has shifted many governments focus to securing public finances and reducing unemployment. Therefore the crisis has made it harder to get economic support to some sustainable development projects. One example is that several countries have reduced feed-in tariffs for solar power more rapidly than previously planned. This makes it even more important than before to make sure that we reach environmental target in the most efficient way.

After a reorganisation in 2009, Baltic 21 has been integrated in the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) as an expert group on sustainable development. I understand that this transition has gone smoothly thanks to good and flexible leadership. I believe that this was a sensible organisational change since it  better links the work in Baltic 21 to the political cooperateion in The Counsil of the Baltic Sea States. Most of the topics on Baltic 21s agenda affect several of the member countries. Thus, efficient solutions often must be based upon cooperateion across the whole regeion.

I know that you today and tomorrow will discuss how your work can be as effective as possible to promote sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region. I wish you all a good and an effective meeting here in Oslo!