Green goals in a grey world

The Baku climate summit in Azerbaijan has ended in an agreement described by environmental organisations as a win for the richest countries.

The Council of Ministers has set several goals for the Nordic cooperation on environmental issues in the coming five years. One is that “The Nordic region will demonstrate that it is possible to live within the planet’s limits while maintaining high prosperity.”

Too often, the opposite is true: Only the richest countries can afford to think about the environment. Images from Indian cities where air pollution is so high that breathing equals smoking 25 cigarettes a day, show how expensive it is to be poor.

In our theme about environment and skills, we try to find examples of how doing something for the environment needs not be very difficult. The Norwegian company Miljø Norge has set up “Slåkkefabrikken” near Drammen, where they recycle used fire extinguishers.

Millions of extinguishers are thrown out every year. Each reused device means cutting 38 kilos of CO2 emissions and giving new life to four kilos of steel. 

In Åland, with its large ocean areas in the Baltic Sea, plans are afoot for offshore wind power production that will surpass the islands’ own needs. Meanwhile, the inhabitants ask: How much is the unspoilt sea horizon worth?

What was to become Europe’s largest battery factory, Northvolt in Swedish Skellefteå, has gone bust. Was that just because of competition from China, or was Northvolt driven by a kind of hubris, where they attempted to develop new technology at the same time?

Outside Arendal in Norway, Morrow began its battery production in August this year.

“Battery production is difficult, so we must not try to take on too much. We have chosen a well-known, proven production technology,” says CEO Lars Christian Bacher. 

Norway does after all have two major advantages: plenty of clean energy and Europe’s largest fleet of electric vehicles. To succeed with the electrification of the transport sector, you also need a closed-loop system for recycling used batteries. 

One of the green challenges facing the region which the Nordic Council is looking at is the falling number of birds in agricultural land areas. An index of the number of birds in agricultural land areas showed 100 in the year 2000 and 61.8 in 2022. Numbers improved somewhat in 2023, to 66.8. 

KU Science – the Faculty of Science at Copenhagen University – offers the programme Agriculture  – Production and Environment, which so far has had many applications from women living in urban areas. 

Two of them are Andrea Topsøe Sloth and Maia Vial, who want to work as consultants for farmers when they graduate, helping them to use sustainable production methods to grow healthy foods.

“I have always been interested in fighting for the environment and food production is extremely important for the green transition,” says Maia Vial. 

The fishing industry is still important to Iceland, even though tourism is more important for the country’s GDP. This year, for the second year running, no quotas were set for capelin, a fish species considered to be the backbone of the North Atlantic ecosystem because it is also food for the cod. When sea temperatures rise, the fish stocks also move.

We also take a look at working environments for two groups of people who so far have had little attention: menopausal women and trans people. The common denominator is hormones. 

“Menopause issues have long been a private issue, but when it affects people’s ability to work it is no longer a private problem but a societal one,” says Stine Mathieu, a guide in natural hormone therapy. 

If a person is going through gender-affirming care, it is important to know that this process takes years. When someone changes their name, there should be routines in place to quickly update email addresses and other administrative functions. This was some of the advice given at a conference on trans people and the labour market, organised as part of the Swedish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The Nordic Labour Journal is published by the Work Research Institute AFI in Norway, which celebrates 60 years this year. So we have also created a special theme looking at the institute’s research and we interviewed AFI Director Elisabeth Nørgaard, who is looking for research with real impact. 

For 24 of the 60 years it has existed, AFI has published Arbeidsliv i Norden and the English edition the Nordic Labour Journal, on commission from the Nordic Council of Ministers. But the publications have a longer history. The first version from 1980 was an information magazine called NAUT information, an acronym for Nordiska arbetsmarknadsutskottet (the Nordic Labour Market Committee). 

In 1987, the magazine was renamed Nordisk arbetsmarknad (Nordic Labour Market). When AFI got the commission, the title became Arbeidsliv i Norden.

I have worked with the publication since the year 2000 and I have been Editor-in-Chief since 1 July 2019. This is my last editorial as I am retiring on 1 January 2025. But I am confident that my successor Line Scheistrøen will carry the publications forward and that they will continue to provide a Nordic perspective on labour markets, working conditions and labour law in the Nordic countries. 

Thank you to everyone who I have worked with during these years!