Norway learns from its bigger brother

The relationship between the Scandinavian countries is often full of competition and pride, especially when it comes to sports. But when it comes to politics I am always happy when we decide to learn from one another, and this article in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten is definitely worth mentioning.

In short, the article tells us that the Norwegian Department of Finance will send a delegation to the Swedish Ministry of Sustainable Development in August. The reason? To learn from Sweden’s environmental policies and our vision of a green welfare state.

In the article, a state secretary at Norway’s Department of Finance says that no country in the world has come as far as Sweden when it comes to our work towards a sustainable development. And since Sweden and Norway are neighbors, Norway will now ask its bigger brother to monitor their work with environmental policies (a set of 18 indicators, grouped into five categories, will be used).

A nice example of Scandinavian cooperation, and a good reason to feel proud if you are a Swede who support our government’s work with green issues, and the vision to break our dependency on oil by 2020.

And needless to say, we can learn loads from our neighbors as well. But I hope and think that Sweden will win more medals than Norway during the upcoming European Athletics Championship in Gothenburg…