Sustainable Development

There are no borders in nature and the countries in the Baltic Sea Region face the same specific risks and challenges - most of them can only be solved if we work together.

We believe that all levels of society must share responsibility and participate in finding sustainable solutions. 

That is why we are continuously building purpose-oriented partnerships, commissioning studies, conducting trainings, facilitating projects and providing policy input to strengthen sustainability practices and climate adaptation processes. Currently, our main goal is to translate the UN Sustainable Development Goals into local objectives for the Baltic Sea Region.

Facts & Figures

  • Around 50 national coordinators, key experts and EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region officials have taken part in the three modules of the the Baltic Leadership Programme on 2030 Agenda. The capacity building programme is specifically designed for the leaders of national and macro-regional implementation of SDGs in the Baltic Sea Region. 
  • The Baltic 2030 Capacity-Building Programme – Localising the SDGs, provided a platform for sub-national actors to understand their role in the promotion of the SDGs and gathered more than 60 experts of strategic planning and sustainable development from 12 different countries.
  • More than 30 reports on sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region have been published.
  • The Expert Group on Sustainable Development (EGSD), comprising officials from the relevant ministries of CBSS Member States, was led by the CBSS for over 20 years. Its mandate involved working on sustainability policies within the Baltic Sea Region through knowledge-sharing, outreach, and project work. The EGSD’s commitment to sustainable development aimed at ensuring prosperous economies, healthy societies and dynamic ecosystems in a balanced and integrated manner. In 2017, the CBSS launched “Realizing the Vision: The Baltic 2030 Action Plan” – calling on all actors in the BSR to take transformative steps towards sustainable development, with the goal of achieving this vision by 2030. Additionally, the EGSD followed up on the SDGs implementation through monitoring existing gaps and needs, and increasing sustainability leadership among catalysts and drivers of systemic changes. This led to the creation of “A Handbook – Localising Sustainable Development Goals in the Baltic Sea Region”. The objectives of the EGSD Baltic 2030 included:
    • Supporting the implementation, engaging stakeholders, communicating the Action Plan and organising events in line the EGSD Chair’s priorities;
    • Working in partnership with regional, subregional and local stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region to advance action on the SDGs and the Baltic 2030 Action Plan;
    • Only platform with all 10 CBSS Member States overseeing and monitoring the 2030 Agenda implementation in the BSR – finding gaps and needs for collaboration;
    • Facilitating localisation of the SDGs/Climate; initiates projects.

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