40 sustainability managers, including representatives from some of Sweden’s major corporations, were treated to a seminar at KPMG Stockholm, featuring, among other things, ecocide law presented by Nina Macpherson and Anna Surtevall. As witnessed by the number of initiated questions, interest was considerable.
Dagens Industri, the Swedish equivalent of the Financial Times, took the opportunity to interview the presenters, resulting in an article. Here are some excerpts.
“It is an important matter. Criminalizing ecocide would contribute to a shift in norms, where the most serious form of crime against nature is considered as unacceptable as war crimes or genocide,” says Nina Macpherson.
She adds that the crimes are not that different either, since serious environmental destruction usually implies a threat to people’s lives and health.
Current legislation on environmental crime exists primarily at the national level. But also at the EU level, where the revised Environmental Crimes Directive makes serious destruction of nature a criminal offense within the Union from 2026.
But Ecocide Law Alliance also wants to see global legislation.
“Definitions of serious environmental crime are different in different parts of the world, nor is the fact that a country has legislation in the area any guarantee that it is applied well. Therefore, international legislation is the most powerful tool,” says Anna Surtevall.
Read the full article here (subscribers only).
