Foreword

The Nordic Council of Ministers has committed to promote a green transition among member countries, and work towards climate neutrality and a sustainable circular and biobased economy. The practice of environmental permitting has been acknowledged as essential to the green transition. Efficient and quality permitting processes are a prerequisite for a successful transition of the industry sector.

To promote a conversation amongst the Nordic countries, the Nordic Council has financed a project to arrange a workshop on the topic of Nordic environmental permitting. The overall purpose of the workshop was to share experiences, best practice and knowledge of environmental permitting practices in the Nordic countries and on that basis identify key success factors.

This report builds on the discussions and analysis before, during and after the workshop. To that end it includes a comparative study among Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland concerning this issue, focusing on two scenarios: 1) a permit for a new industrial installation that will have effects on the environment, and 2) a change of a permit in an existing industrial installation as part of the effort to achieve climate neutrality.

The report first introduces some general comparative remarks about the Nordic legal systems and environmental law and decision-making. Thereafter, the study and its parameters are introduced (Chapter 1). After this, a brief description is given for each of the countries in the study: Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland (Chapter 2). Here, general information is given about each country's national law and administration, environmental legislation, environmental administration and decision-making, supervision and enforcement, and finally system for administrative appeal and judicial review. In Chapter 3, some conclusions are drawn from a workshop that was undertaken with representatives from the authorities from all five countries. Here, also a couple of challenges to the permit systems are presented and issues of interest for further comparative studies are discussed. Finally, there are two annexes to the report, containing the minutes from the two workshops that were held as part of the study, the first on 22–23 March 2022 (Annex I) and the second on 22 March 2023 (Annex II).

The lead author of the report is Jan Darpö, emeritus professor in environmental law, at the Faculty of Law/Uppsala Universitet. The project has been steered by Naturvårdsverket (Swedish Environment Protection Agency) guided by a reference group comprised of representatives from all the Nordic countries. The report has been proofread by Merideth Wright, former judge at the Vermont Environmental Court (USA)