What was decided at the 2023 Session of the Nordic Council
27th of November 2023
Nordic Region as a leading force for offshore wind power
The Committee for a Sustainable Nordic Region has been working for some time on the issue of how the Nordic countries can work together more closely on the expansion of offshore wind power while simultaneously protecting the marine biodiversity. In a recommendation adopted at the Session, the Nordic Council emphasises that official processes should be streamlined in order to speed up the development of wind power, and that co-operation should be stepped up to ensure that the Nordic power grid is as integrated as possible.
Legislation against ecocide
The Nordic Council adopted a recommendation to the Nordic Council of Ministers to work towards making ecocide – i.e. large-scale environmental destruction – an international crime under the Rome Statute. This would mean that in the future, major environmental crimes could be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The rationale is that large-scale environmental crimes pose a threat to peace and security in the same way as other crimes against peace.
Decisive action against domestic violence
Another of the Nordic Council’s recommendations is that the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic governments should work to ensure comparable statistics for intimate partner homicide and domestic violence. It has been pointed out that research from Norway shows that, in most cases of intimate partner homicide, the victim had previously been in contact with the authorities, which means that their death could have been prevented. There’s also a call for more co-operation between the Nordic countries on research into domestic violence between.
Research in the field of nuclear energy
The Nordic Council wants the Nordic Council of Ministers to investigate how the countries of the Nordic Region could better co-operate on expertise in the nuclear field. The main focus is on the fact that the Nordic Region needs such skills for the decommissioning of existing nuclear power facilities. The Nordic Region could be a pioneer in this field, and new knowledge in the area could also be utilised internationally. According to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 200 of the world’s 450 nuclear power plants will have to be decommissioned by 2050.
