This year the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia is focusing on sustainability

Monday, 28 January 2019

This year the keyword of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia is ‘sustainability’ – a term which is taking on greater significance and greater meaning in the light of the global, environmental, social and economic challenges the world is facing. Sustainable development is also a keyword in the programme of Iceland’s presidency of Nordic cooperation for 2019. Moreover, it is a word which can be said to link all of our office’s plans for this year – in some shape or form we will be guided by the principle of sustainability in everything we do, as well as directly promoting the development of sustainable ways of thinking in a variety of fields. We will be doing this by talking about the experiences of the Nordic countries and by bringing experts together from Estonia and the Nordic region.

Dealing most directly with the issue of sustainability will be a number of events in the fields of the green economy and energy. The end of 2018 saw the launch of a Nordic-Baltic project to map textile waste which will continue throughout 2019 and of whose results we are hoping to be able to inform you on an ongoing basis. A key partner in this is the Stockholm Environment Institute in Tallinn, with whom we are also working to organise the ‘Bioeconomy – Creativity and Sustainability for All’ conference on 28 February. Our other partners for the conference are the Estonian University of Life Sciences and the Estonian Private Forest Centre. Active cooperation is also continuing with CleanTech Forest, with whose help a range of events designed to promote ways of thinking from the field of the bioeconomy and generate new ideas is likely to materialise in spring. In autumn we plan once again to talk about the energy issues uniting the region at the Nordic-Baltic Energy Conference.

Social sustainability will be examined from various angles at a range of events, including the Nordic-Baltic Migration Conference being held at Kumu on 29 March (which this year will focus on the role that education plays in integration) and the migration-themed seminars and study trips for experts taking place at the end of the year. We hope to contribute once again to the development of a culture of public debate by taking part in the Opinion Festival, which this year is scheduled to be held in Paide on 9 & 10 August and by continuing to support honest, fact-based discussion by taking part of the ‘How do you know?’ initiative. And as a continuation of the So what? conference held in 2018, the issues of gender equality and diversity will again be examined in the conference format this autumn.

New ideas drive society forward, which is why it is important to inspire creativity. The island of Kihnu will be playing host to a creative writing camp for youngsters from 24-27 April that is expected to be attended by students and teachers from both the Nordic countries and the Baltic States. An environment-themed travelling exhibition entitled ‘The Weather Diaries’ is planned to be opened at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design in September. Curated by Nordic House in Iceland, the exhibition will be seen in all three Baltic States. Nordic authors are expected to attend meet-and-greets with readers in Estonia throughout the year thanks to support from the Nordic Writers Crossing Borders programme, and taking place in November will be the now traditional Nordic Literature Week – an event which brings together book-lovers of all ages from the Nordic countries and Baltic States to hear stories by their favourite Nordic authors read aloud. There are also plans to continue promoting Nordic culture and the Nordic lifestyle in Narva and Ida-Viru County more broadly as part of Nordic Week in November.

These are just some of the events being organised by or involving the participation of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia in 2019. In addition, we will be continuing with a number of our support programmes, more information about which can be found here. To keep yourself up to date you can subscribe to the Nordic newsletter or follow us on social media (Facebook and Twitter).


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