THE decision to scrap Sweden’s Ministry of Environment will have “devastating consequences” for the environment, according to the Green Party.

The new right-wing government has also decided to ditch the country’s pioneering “feminist foreign policy.

The four-party ruling bloc sparked an outcry on Wednesday when it announced there would no longer be a Ministry of Environment.

New Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said environmental issues will now be dealt with as part of another department and would not have a dedicated seat in the Cabinet.

Swedish Greens leader and former deputy prime minister Per Bolund criticised the decision, which leaves Sweden with no dedicated environment ministry for the first time in 35 years. 

Mr Bolund said: “It is impossible to describe more clearly how little this government values ​​the environment and the climate. This is a historic decision with devastating consequences for environmental issues.”

Paer Holmgren, a Swedish Green Party MEP, said the country should now “expect huge cuts in green funding leading to a devastating impact on climate policies that we, the Greens, worked so hard to put in place." 

Stockholm Environmental Institute board chairman Isabella Lovin said that green concerns in Sweden had been “set back 35 years.”

This comes as the new government also announced its plans to throw out the Sweden’s “feminist foreign policy.”

New Foreign Minister Tobia Billstrom said: “Gender equality is a core value for Sweden and this government, but we will not conduct a feminist foreign policy.

He added: “Labels on things have a tendency to cover up the content.”

The new government was formed a little over a month ago between a coalition of parties, including a far-right anti-immigration party, to oust the Social Democrats, which have dominated Swedish politics since the 1930s.