Sweden’s good reputation for a clean environment may be deserved, but there are murky spots. True, it gained high marks in the recent OECD Environmental Performance Review of Sweden. It was one of the first OECD countries to cut its use of environmentally harmful chemicals, and is one of the few OECD countries on track to meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Note 26 April: This article was written by Minister Cullen to set out the issues in advance of the 2004 OECD Environment Ministerial meeting which he chaired. For the chair's summary of the meeting, please click here. See end of article for other references.

Sticking to deadlines and keeping promises has never been easy for anyone, let alone politicians, for reasons we all understand. But there are some pressing matters that require urgent firm action, not because we have made promises or undertaken commitments, but because there may not be too many second chances to get them right. Some environmental challenges are of this type.

Biodiversity has struggled for front page attention in environmental policy campaigns. Perhaps it is because the word "biodiversity" has a positive connotation and so lacks the rallying edge of headline terms like pollution, global warming, hazardous wastes or ozone depletion.

Ten years have passed since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) entered into force on 21 March 1994. It is thus most appropriate to review what has happened since then in what is an enormously complex field. One thing has become very clear, namely that climate change touches upon virtually every sphere of life, and almost every human activity either contributes to climate change or is affected by its impacts.

Remember the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development? Norway's minister of the environment, Børge Brende, chair of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development since May 2003, is determined to make sure that commitments made at Johannesburg and at other meetings are not mere souvenirs. We interviewed Mr Brende ahead of the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the OECD in March.

Does development aid help the environment? It ought to, especially as ensuring environmental sustainability is an explicit public policy aim in the Millennium Development Goals which governments reaffirmed at the Johannesburg summit on sustainable development in 2002.