Swedish National Audit Office Slams Government’s Sustainability Efforts
The Swedish National Audit Office has now released a report criticizing the government’s efforts to meet the sustainability goals set out in Agenda 2030. The Ministry of Climate and Business does not wish to comment on the Swedish National Audit Office’s review at this time.
Text: Arvid Wiclander Mellgren
Agenda 2030 consists of 17 sustainable development goals adopted by UN member states in 2015. The Swedish National Audit Office has now concluded that the alignment between the government’s work and the Agenda 2030 goals has declined rather than improved since the goals were adopted.
When Sweden’s work on the goals was reviewed by the UN last year, Sweden was given the assessment “major challenges remain” regarding its work on marine sustainability, which is covered by goal 14 of Agenda 2030. Karina Barquet, senior researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute, explains what the new report actually means.
“The audit report primarily criticizes the weak governance and follow-up of Agenda 2030, not individual measures. For Goal 14, two of six indicators are red. For Goal 14 to go from red to green, sharper governance, prioritization, and follow-up are required, integrating both effective area protection and long-term economic measures. That is the real message of the report”, she tells Deep Sea Reporter.
The National Audit Office believes that the government’s work on the 17 goals has been lacking in ambition, governance, and follow-up. Among other things, the audit points out that the main responsibility for Agenda 2030 has lain with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has meant that implementation in various domestic policy issues has fallen behind.
The government also prematurely terminated Statistics Sweden’s mandate to monitor the achievement of the goals, which has made it much more difficult to follow up on Sweden’s Agenda 2030 work.
Despite the fact that the work has been going on for 10 years, one can still wonder how the work towards the goals and sub-goals is progressing in Sweden. It is also difficult to access the follow-up of the indicators that exist, says Karl Nilsson, project manager for the audit, in a press release. Carl Alexander Lindman, environmental lawyer at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation in Östergötland, believes that the audit according to him shows a nonchalant attitude and an unwillingness to achieve the goals.
According to the National Audit Office’s review, there is a lack of direction, control, follow-up, and reporting on the part of the government.
“The result has been unsustainable ecological development, completely contrary to the purpose and goals of the Agenda,” he tells Deep Sea Reporter. The Ministry of Climate and Business does not wish to comment on the content of the audit but writes in an email to Deep Sea Reporter:
“The Swedish National Audit Office has today published its audit of the government’s work on Agenda 2030. The government welcomes the report and will respond to the audit’s findings in a letter within four months.”
Deep Sea Reporter is seeking a comment from Minister for Rural Affairs Peter Kullgren.
Goal 14 on marine sustainability: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal14
Goal 13 on climate change: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal13
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