“One World, Common Future— Towards Sustainable Development”: Critical discourse analysis of environmental policies in Finland´s development cooperation

Abstract

This thesis examines how Finland´s development cooperation policy line in the twenty-first century promotes environmentally sustainable development. The primary research material of this study consists of policy documents published by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland concerning development cooperation and solving environmental issues in the developing countries. The theoretical framework of this work consists of the examination of sustainable development and environmental governance and the effects of private sector centered development agenda. Biopolitics and governmentality are applied in the thesis to critically examine what kind of consequences contemporary international development agenda has had in Finland´s development policy line. As a research method this thesis has utilized a critical discourse analysis.

According to the analysis, Finland´s contemporary development cooperation policy line is rooted in the sustainable development paradigm and international development agenda. Sustainable development discourse has traditionally emphasized that there are ultimate limits to growth however, it has also held as a possibility that economic, social, and environmental development targets can be reconciled with technological development and societal change. In the development discourses, environmentally sustainable development is primarily promoted with strengthening environmental governance on the international and state level and transferring sustainable technology to the partner countries.

In the 2010s, the post-2015 development agenda has influenced Finland´s development policy to adopt new means for supporting environmentally sustainable development. The impacts of liberal forms of governance in Finland´s development policy line is that businesses are empowered as central development actors next to governments in finding solutions through commercial means to solving environmental issues. Innovations have become central targets for promoting environmentally sustainable development also in Finland´s development policy. Innovation centric development policy emphasizes the role of producing capable subjects in the developing countries who can increasingly utilize their human potential and contribute solving development issues.