Using Goals in Environmental Management: The Swedish System of Environmental Objectives

• Published in: Environmental management (New York) Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 170 - 180
• Main Author: Edvardsson, Karin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Springer 01.08.2004; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Conflict (Psychology); Conservation of Natural Resources; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Environment; Environmental management; Environmental objective; Environmental policy; Environmental regulations; Filosofiämnen; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Goals; Historisk-filosofiska ämnen; History and philosophy subjects; HUMANIORA och RELIGIONSVETENSKAP; HUMANITIES and RELIGION; Objectives; Philosophy subjects; Policy Making; Sweden; Sweden; Environmental management; environmental objectives; goal conflicts; precision; goal-setting; evaluability
• ISSN: 0364-152X; 1432-1009; 1432-1009
• DOI: 10.1007/s00267-004-3073-3

In Sweden, environmental policy is essentially carried out through a system of environmental objectives adopted by Parliament in the late 1990s. This system contains principles, objectives, interim targets, strategies, and follow-up mechanisms, which together provide a solid ground for increased efficiency and improved prioritization in environmental policies. Despite the ambitious approach of the Swedish Parliament, the system of environmental objectives suffers from certain shortcomings. Some of the objectives are imprecise and difficult to evaluate, and there are no rules or principles that may be used to solve goal conflicts and to prioritize between different objectives. As a consequence, the environmental objectives tend to differ in their degrees of operationalizability, and the priority-setting between different objectives is often unclear.