The legal basis for sustainable development in Estonia is provided by the Constitution of the
Republic of Estonia, which entered into force in 1992. The Act on Sustainable Development
was adopted in 1995 and sets the basis for the environmental regulation, such as sustainable
use of the environment and environmental resources and according to the act long-term plans
on sustainable development are to be elaborated in the energy, transport, agriculture, forestry,
tourism, chemical industry, building materials industry and food industry sectors.
In 1996, the Estonian Commission on Sustainable Development was founded as an advisory
body to the Government. The Commission analyses the national policy of sustainable
development and draws up relevant recommendations and proposals to the Government.
Commission consist of the representatives of different concerned parties and their
recommendations are based on scientific research. The Strategy Office in the State Chancellery
acts as the secretariat of the Commission and provides link to the government sector and also
to other development processes.
Commission initiated and supervised the development of the Estonian National Strategy on
Sustainable Development, which was approved by the Estonian Parliament in 2005. The
Estonian National Strategy on Sustainable Development
http://www.riigikantselei.ee/failid/Estonia_SDS_2005.pdf gives general directions for
developing the Estonian state and society until the year 2030 with the aim of integrating the
requirements for success arising from global competition following the principles of
sustainable development and preservation of the traditional values of Estonia. Long-term goals
for the sustainable development are: viability of the Estonian cultural space; growth of welfare;
coherent society and ecological balance. Strtegy provide basis for integration of environmental
considerations into other, particularly economic and social spheres.
The State Chancellery is responsible both for coordinating the implementation of the Estonian
National Strategy on Sustainable Development and the Estonian Action Plan for Growth and
Jobs 2008?2011 and this settlement ensures that there is coherence between main long-term
and short-term goals and the monitoring of the implementation processes is efficiently
supervised.

Estonian National Strategy on Sustainable Development forms the general bases for
development of the strategic documents in different fields. In accordance with the general
principles of sustainable development based on the social, economic and environmental pillars,
all related ministries are responsible for implementing of the sustainable development goals,
monitoring and reporting in their respective fields. To support horizontal integration and cover
cross-cutting issues and inter-linkages in the sustainable development field, an inter-ministerial
working group at the Deputy Secretary General level was established in 2007.
The first progress report of the Estonian National Strategy on Sustainable Development was
compiled in 2008 and is available in estonian on the homepage of the State Chancellery
http://www.riigikantselei.ee/failid/SE21_aruanne_20_11_2008.pdf .
The basic set of indicators for monitoring and analysis of the Strategy was adopted in 2006,
indicators has been up-dated by Statistics Estonia in 2009 and new set was published parallely
in estonian and english language http://www.stat.ee/31383 .
In Estonia sustainable use of natural resources and decoupling of economic growth from the
environmental and social degradation is enhanced by supporting appropriate technological
innovations and development of the research field through different action plans and
programmes. Implementation of the long-term sustainable development goals in Estonia is
based on creating and using knowledge aimed at efficient operation of the society and
innovative economy to increase welfare of the people. ?Knowledge-based Estonia. Estonian
Research and Development and Innovation Stratergy 2007-2013?
http://www.riigikantselei.ee/?id=6235 sets out main objectives: competitive quality and
increased intensity of research and development; innovative enterprises creating new value in
the global economy; innovation friendly society aimed at a long-term development. These
short-term objectives contribute to achievement of the long-term goals of Estonia.
In the environmental field main strategic documents are Estonian Environmental Strategy 2030
http://www.envir.ee/orb.aw/class=file/action=preview/id=1101230/inglisekeelne.pdf
and National Environmental Action Plan of Estonia for 2007-2013
http://www.envir.ee/orb.aw/class=file/action=preview/id=1101231/inglise_keeles_tegev
uskava.pdf . Main objectives cover:
1.Sustainable use of natural resources and reduction of waste generation
(waste, soil and use of land, game, fish, forest, water, mineral resources);
2.Preservation of the diversity of landscapes and biodiversity (landscapes, biodiversity);
3.Climate change mitigation and quality of ambient air (energy production, energy
consumption, transport, substances affecting the ozone layer);
4.The environment, health and quality of life (outdoor environment, interior space, food,
drinking and bathing water, unused hazardous sites, safety and protection of the population).
Since 1991 the use of natural resources is taxed and the polluter pays principle is applied in
order to motivate companies to contribute to the development of environmentally sparing
technologies and new equipment. The Estonian taxation system has been revised in order to
apply the principles of green tax reform to conserve natural resources and the environment.
Instead of taxing income, the trend is to tax more consumption, the use of natural resources
and the pollution of the environment. Environmental taxes have composed an increasing share
of total taxes and revenues in later years. Environmental taxes are fuel, electricity and package
excises, resource charges (based on the principle of royalties) and pollution charges (pollution
taxes). Natural resource charges apply to water abstraction, mineral extraction, hunting,
fishing, etc. Pollution charges are paid when depositing waste or emitting pollutants into air or
water. In order to tax consumption and to decrease negative environmental impact, the excise
duty rates on selected fuels were increased from 2009.

Concerning the awareness raising and involvement of the public into decision-making
processes on sustainable development issues Estonia has practicies on different levels. The
Aarhus (1998) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making,
and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters was ratified in 2001. Since 2005 Ministry of
the Environment has initiated regular round-table meetings with the representatives of the
environmental NGO-s. Topics of these dicussions concentrates on sustainable development
and environmental policy issues and hot spots raised by the NGO-s.
Since 2005 Estonian Ministry of the Environment and several Associations of Enterprises have
signed voluntary agreements with the aim to enhance cooperation between companies and the
Ministry on development of environmental activities and legislation.
Sustainable development iniatives on the local government level are usually put into practice
in the frames of local development strategies and in some cases Local Agenda 21 plans are
composed and adopted by the local governments.

In addition to the headline targets foreseen in Europe 2020 the competitiveness strategy
?Estonia 2020? shall include further core targets: productivity per person employed, share of
Estonian export in the world, participation in life-long learning, share of adults having no
professional or vocational education.
Estonia is committed to the EU climate and energy package. One of the Estonia´s priorities is
reduction of negative environmental and social impacts of energy use and promotion of
resource efficiency together with sustainable consumption and production patterns. Estonian
economy is highly dependent on the supply of fossil fuels, approximately 90% of energy is
produced through the combustion of fossil fuels and the remaining 10% comes from
renewables, primarily from the wind power and combined heat and power production based on
biofuels. According to the Development Plan of the Estonian Electricity Sector until 2018
http://www.mkm.ee/public/ELMAK_EN.pdf and the National Development Plan of the Energy
Sector until 2020 the energy supply will be diversified and more different sources of energy
will be used. Estonian Programme of Energy Technologies forms the framework for supporting
the development of energy technologies in two main fields: oil shale technologies and new
energy technologies that are mainly based on renewable energy sources.
The field of public procurement in Estonia is regulated by the Public Procurement Act and
supplemented with several regulations of the Government of Estonia. The priorities of green
and sustainable public procurements have been determined in Estonia to better employ
environmentally sustainable principles, change unsustainable production and consumption
patterns and enhance the synergy between environmental sustainability and economic
competitiveness. These priorities enable systematic development of the methods of
environmentally-friendly and sustainable public procurement and also assure society?s access
to information about sustainable consumption and purchasing. The general goal is to expand
the market of environmentally clean and healthy products, encourage operators? sustainable
product development and enable innovation in the adoption of environmental technologies.