The Environmental Code came into force on 1 January 1999. It replaced fifteen previous environmental acts which were amalgamated into the Code. The Environmental Code constitutes a modernised, broadened and more stringent environmental legislation aimed at promoting sustainable development.
Sustainable development
The principle of sustainable development was introduced by the Brundtland Commission in 1987 in the report Our common future. Since then it has had an increasingly greater impact on both national and international environmental protection.
At the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, the concept won recognition as a central point of departure for the future development of society. With the Amsterdam treaty of 1997, the principle has been written into the EC treaty as one of the goals of the European Union.
For the concept of sustainable development to progress from being a general policy statement to a principle that can form the foundation of concrete demands for action, regulation in the form of legislation and its application is necessary.
The role of legislation
Legislation has for many years been the central tool in Sweden with which principles of environmental policy have been transformed into practical measures. The previous environmental legislation was, however, insufficient to tackle some of the environmental problems that have been pointed out in the vision of sustainable development.
One of the main ideas behind the Environmental Code reform was to modernise and update Swedish environmental legislation. Gathering the central environmental laws into a code and effecting substantial systematic and juridical changes to them are just part of the reform. The fact that working with the Code has encouraged a well-needed broadening and tightening up of central legislation is probably of greater significance.
The purpose and area of application of the Environmental Code
The purpose of the Environmental Code is to promote sustainable development which will assure a healthy and sound environment for present and future generations. To achieve this, the code shall be applied so that:
- human health and the environment are protected against damage and detriment, whether caused by pollutants or other impacts
- valuable natural and cultural environments are protected and preserved
- biological diversity is preserved
- the use of land, water and the physical environment in general is such as to secure long term good management in ecological, social, cultural and economic terms
- reuse and recycling, as well as other management of materials, raw materials and energy are encouraged so that natural cycles are established and maintained.
The area of application of the Environmental Code is directly linked to the promotion of sustainable development. The Code is applicable to all activities or measures that are of significance for this purpose to be achieved. It therefore concerns all types of measures and operations that can be of importance to those interests the Code is intended to protect, regardless of whether they are part of a private individual's daily life or are some form of business activity.
The area of application of the Code is not just important for the situations in which the Code can be used. Primarily, it decides what types of environmental issues that can be examined in a court of law, for example, a pre-condition that may be set for the start of an environmentally hazardous activity might be anything that promotes sustainable development.
All in all, this means in many cases that the regulations that were part of previous environmental legislation now have a new and broader application.
General rules of consideration
Chapter 2 of the Environmental Code contains a number of general rules of consideration that express, for instance, the precautionary principle, polluter pays principle, product choice principle and principles regarding resource management, recycling and suitable localisation of activities and measures.
The rules have a preventive effect since they place binding demands on anyone running a business or an operation or is taking action to gain knowledge on the environmental effects of such activities and express the principle that the risks of environmental impact should be borne by the polluter and not by the environment.
Supervisory and licensing authorities have the power to base their decisions on these general rules of consideration concerning injunctions, bans, permit conditions etc. As a result, the content of these rules becomes much more concrete through regulations or decisions in each individual case.
Objectives and goals for environmental quality
The Environmental Code places more emphasis on goal and result management than previous environmental legislation. Government ordinances and regulations from authorities will therefore not only be governed by the purpose of the Code and the general rules of consideration, but also by other environmental goals not included in the Code.
Licensing and supervision work is to be steered by the national environmental objectives, specified in the form of regional and sector goals. This means that the licensing and supervision of activities and measures must take the goals of environmental policy into consideration.
Environmental quality standards
The Environmental Code contains environmental quality standards (EQS), which are a new feature in Swedish environmental legislation. EQS are regulations concerning the quality of land, water, air and the environment in general. Whereas the previous environmental legislation was only aimed at minimising and alleviating environmental disturbances, as far as was reasonable, the Environmental Code with EQS places direct demands on the final result.
Area and species protection
Regulations concerning different types of area protection, such as national parks, nature reserves, biotope protection and shoreline protection, have been brought together in the Environmental Code. Together with regulations regarding protection of species, the purpose is to preserve biological diversity.
Environmental sanction charges
One reason why compliance with the previous environmental legislation was poor was that the risk of being punished for an environmental crime was rather small. Consequently there has been a need for a rapid and effective way of responding to infringements of the environmental rules. Therefore penalties in the form of environmental sanction charges were introduced with the Environmental Code. These charges are levied directly by the supervisory authorities when an infringement has been established.