Sustainable Scandanavia

Nordic countries are within the…

Arctic circle

What countries are a part of the “Nordic” countries?

Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Finland

Why consider the Nordics when we study sustainable development?

Across the Nordic region is the idea of “freedom to roam.”

They are transparent about their progress in terms of sustainability

Finland introduced the worlds first carbon tax, later followed by other Nordic countries

Freedom to roam

Idea regarding relationship to property saying that you can own private property in the Nordic region, but provided that we stay 300 meters away from someones home, anyone can go and forage for berries, camp, whatever, on that land. It increases the freedom for citizens across Nordics.

How do you make capitalism sustainable?

We need unsustainable companies to be unprofitable and sustainable companies to be profitable. We need to internalize the negative externalities

An example of internalizing the negative externalities

Taxing greenhouse gas emissions

The worlds first carbon tax just passed last year in

The country of Denmark.

How does Carbon Tax work in Denmark?

It reduces taxes for companies that reduce their carbon emissions and increases taxes for companies that don’t reduce their emissions. Denmark doesn’t keep the taxes for themselves, they put the money into an Innovation Fund for companies to have access to for subsidies.

Definition of sustainable development

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

#1 REASON: Why consider the Nordics when we study sustainable development?

The Nordic countries are the strongest performers in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

At 2025, we consume ___ Earths worth of consumption.

1.8 Earths

At 1980, we hit ___ Earths worth of consumption.

1.0 Earths

Planetary Boundaries

The earth is comprised of 9 Systems that enable human being to survive and flourish

How many of the planetary boundaries are we in violation of?

Seven: Biosphere integrity, climate change, novel entities, land-system change, freshwater, biogeochemical flows, ocean acidification

What role does democracy play in Nordics strides to sustainability?

Due to this, they can innovate with policy that, at the moment, would be inconceivable at the federal level in the US. The innovative policies help made strides towards less emissions and other goals.