Michael Funch, Senior Communications Adviser at the Nordic Council of Ministers details how the Nordic cooperation addresses the green economy challenge…
The challenge involved in developing a green economy is common to governments all over the world. In the Nordic region, there is a long standing tradition for working together on major social and economic challenges. This also goes for green growth and circular economy. One recent example is the Nordic Built Cities Challenge, which aims to contribute to creating liveable, smart and sustainable cities all over the globe. The Nordic Council of Ministers also has a new initiative coming up, profiling the Nordic region in the run up to COP21.
Green growth and bio economy have been 2 of the main focus areas for Nordic cooperation in recent years. As the seat of official cooperation between the five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – the Nordic Council of Ministers has initiated a number of projects to further a more sustainable development both regionally and globally.
The Nordic Prime Ministers in 2011 launched a new initiative to deepen the cooperation on selected areas within green growth. This includes areas under the headline of circular economy such as textile and plastic recycling, food waste and bio refineries. It also includes work on eco-design and a better market surveillance for energy saving products, as well as a focus on new standards for renovation of houses and sustainable building.
On top of this, the Nordic Council of Ministers for Business has now launched a brand new initiative called Nordic Built Cities. Run by Nordic Innovation – the business and innovation institution of the Nordic Council of Ministers – Nordic Built Cities sets out to unleash creative energies across borders to create more sustainable, liveable and smarter urban environments, both in the Nordic countries, but later on also globally.
Nordic Built Cities – caring for the future of urban development
The Nordic countries have a long and time honoured tradition when it comes to holistic city planning and innovative architecture. From the modernist classics of Alvar Aalto over the playful Sydney Opera House by Jørn Utzon to the ground breaking work by Bjarke Ingels, the Nordics have always had a sense for creating houses and cities fit to live in –often with a creative twist. The Nordic Built Charter that was introduced in 2013 was an attempt by the Nordic Council of Ministers to rally stakeholders in the region around a set of principles to guide future construction and refurbishment of sustainable buildings. Most of the major players in the construction business have signed the Charter, along with trade unions and interest organisations across the region, not to forget many cities and municipalities.
Now Nordic Built Cities takes this a step further by launching the Nordic Built Cities Challenge – an open, needs-driven competition based on the Nordic Built Charter, aimed at developing and visualising Nordic innovative solutions for liveable, smart and sustainable cities.
One part of the Nordic Built Cities initiative is a competition inviting cities and building owners throughout the Nordic region to bring forth the challenges they are facing when trying to develop sustainable urban environments. Subsequently, construction companies or other actors are invited to come up with solutions to these challenges. The other part of the initiative is a translation of this process into more export oriented solutions. Thus the ambition of the Nordic Built Cities Challenge is to develop tangible and scalable solutions to urban challenges and support joint Nordic export promotion of these solutions – contributing to liveable, smart and sustainable cities all over the globe.
New Nordic Climate Solutions
The Nordic countries have been very important players in the UN climate negotiations through the last decades and although the COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 was not the success the organisers had hoped for, the Nordics remain committed to the climate agenda.
In the run up to COP21 in Paris in December, plans are in the making to present the best of green solutions from the Nordic countries at various venues. The focus will be on World Efficiency, a pre-COP21 event in Paris in October. But the UN summit on the new sustainable development goals is also in play, as well as the climate talks in Bonn in June.
This is all part of a new strategy for profiling and positioning the Nordic region, a strategy that in many ways builds on and enhances the effort to showcase green solutions and green growth “the Nordic Way”. The strategy builds on a set of values deemed to be typical of, although not exclusive to, the Nordic countries. This includes sustainable management of the environment and development of natural resources along with new ways of thinking, focusing on creativity and innovations. Trust, openness, the proximity of the common man to those in power as well as the conviction about the equal value of all people are other less tangible values involved.
Hopefully these values and this Nordic perspective will guide Nordic action in the field of green growth in the years to come. Initiatives like Nordic Built is at least one good example of how they can be carried out in real life.
The Nordic Council of Ministers is the official cooperation between the Nordic governments. Nordic co-operation is one of the world’s most extensive forms of regional collaboration, involving Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland. The NCM secretariat is based in Copenhagen, with a number of institutions and offices throughout the Nordic-Baltic region. For more information on green growth projects from the Nordic Council of Ministers see www.nordicway.org . For more info on Nordic Built Cities see www.nordicbuilt.org .
Michael Funch
Senior Communications Adviser
the Nordic Council of Ministers
www.norden.org