Commission on Environment

New solutions for promoting sustainable development

The three-day conference on sustainable development, called 'Solutions local, together', was held in Turku on 31 January to 2 February. It brought together over 580 experts - local authorities and other stakeholders, and representatives of the business world - from 18 countries. Through various workshops and discussions, new solutions were sought for creative urban planning, sustainable consumption, protection of the Baltic Sea, combating the climate change, and renewable energy use.

All four conference rooms were sustainably staged by using local product to match the topics of the discussions.

In her opening speech, Mari Kiviniemi, Prime Minister of Finland, highlighted the pioneering role of the Nordic Region in sustainable development. In the panel discussion led by Minister of Housing Jan Vapaavuori from Finland, the Ministers for Nordic Co-operation pointed out that climate change is not only a threat, but also an underutilised opportunity for the green economy and finding new solutions for sustainable development.

Locally, together with others
The aim of the conference was to share positive experiences from innovations and models of operation while offering municipalities and other local actors genuinely productive and practical ideas. The best practical solutions for combating climate change were also recognised at the event. The awards went to the ECO2 - Eco-efficient Tampere 2020 project of Tampere and to the snowcooling project of Snowpower AB and the County Council of Västernorrland, Sweden. The conference offered a good platform to exchange existing good practices and widen the use of them around the BSR.

The Conference was the forth in the series of the Nordic Conferences on Sustainable Development. Previous conferences were held in Gothenburg, Sweden (2004), in Oslo, Norway (2006) and in Odense, Denmark (2008). The Finnish organizers of the conference broadened the conference target audience to the entire Baltic Sea Region. This was enabled by providing the entire conference programme simultaneously interpreted into Finnish, Swedish and English. The conference was created locally with several stakeholders and this was visible in the conference through 13 local solutions, 3 side events and large processes that involved hundreds of citizens and pupils to benefit from the event. The outcomes of the conference will continue after the conference for example through local menus at 8 restaurants, water path for all 5^th graders at Turku, cooperations between several actors and new thinking of the use of space and staging.

The next Nordic Conference will be held in Umeå, Sweden.