Sustainable development refers to continuous and controlled social change at the global, regional and local levels, aiming at ensuring a better quality of life for everyone now and for generations to come.
The Finnish Government is committed to active participation in international cooperation to solve global environmental problems and to enhance international environmental governance.
Sustainable development requires joint consideration of factors that relate to economy, society and the environment.
Environmental values should be taken into account e.g. in the development of the rules of international trade. The principles of sustainable development are pivotal in Finland's actions on achieving a balanced globalisation.
International environmental agreements are a crucial form of cooperative efforts towards a more sustainable world. Finland is committed to over one hundred multilateral and bilateral environmental agreements encompassing areas such as climate change, air pollution, chemicals, conservation of nature and marine areas, biological diversity and waste management. International agreements are also a valuable tool for development cooperation: as a party of the agreements, Finland is committed to supporting the developing countries in their efforts to reach the objectives of the agreements.
Sustainable Development plays a major role in the strategies and programmes of the Finnish Government already since 1990. The current National Strategy for Sustainable Development "Towards sustainable choices. A nationally and globally sustainable Finland" was adopted in June 2006 by the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development. In December 2006 the strategy was adopted also by the Council of State. The vision of the National strategy for Sustainable Development is to assure well-being within the limits of the carrying capacity of nature nationally and globally. The objective is to create sustainable well-being in a safe and pluralistic society that promotes participation, and in which all people take responsibility for the environment. The vision guides both short and long-term activities, which serve to help various actors select solutions that observe the principles of sustainable development. The starting point is that the key guidelines of the Strategy form foundation for drafting Government and policy programmes. The timeline for the targets is beyond current generations, extending until about 2030.
Practical efforts are made to facilitate the United Nations Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (2002). As a part of this process, Finland has prepared a National Programme on Sustainable Consumption and Production - one of the first of its kind anywhere in the world. Finland also wishes to take an active role in the preparation of an international framework programme on sustainable consumption and production. It is important to promote a deepening voluntary corporate responsibility and a more effective system of international regulation in order to improve human rights in global product chains as well as to ease the stress on the environment.
The Government of Finland is committed to fostering sustainable development along with stability and security in the international community. Finland strives to contribute to achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, including the objective to halve by 2015 the number of people living in extreme poverty. Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs works for these aims through development cooperation and international trade policy.
The principles of sustainable development are an essential element of Finland's programme for development cooperation, which incorporates the cross-cutting themes of environmental protection, gender equity and the promotion of women's and girls' rights and the facilitation of the participation of those particularly vulnerable to exclusion. The theme of environmental protection in development also involves efforts to stop the depletion of natural resources.
The Strategies of Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs emphasize democracy, good governance, human rights, equality, a functioning market economy and sustainable development. In a world where stakeholders are increasingly interdependent, the Ministry strives to promote human security and to eradicate poverty. In practice this implies improving international jurisprudence and global governance, enhancing development cooperation with an accent on partnerships fostering sustainable development, and strengthening democracy, constitutional states and human rights.
Development policy program 2007 (PDF, 40 pages, 1,75 MB)
Making It Happen - Best practices from Finland (PDF, 36 pages, 0,92 MB)
CSD-17 final text (PDF, 52 pages, 157 kB)
