ABSTRACT
The official view in Sweden is that the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio in 1992 has had a strong impact both on Sweden’s environment policy and its development assistance. No doubt the principles of the Rio Declaration and the integrated and broad-based recommendations in Agenda 21 have influenced environmental debates and policies. This applies, for example, to an Environmental Code, energy and traffic policy, the use of economic instruments, and the substitution of chemical products with less harmful ones. Also, Sweden’s development assistance now has as an explicit goal to contribute to sustainable development in the receiving countries.
