Previously environmental issues had been handled by the Ministry of Agriculture (Swedish: Jordbruksdepartementet) and energy issues had been handled by the Ministry of Industry.
In 1990, the short form name of Ministry of the Environment was used, and energy issues transferred back to the Ministry of Industry, although supervision of nuclear energy was retained.
From 1 January 2005,[4] during the cabinet of Göran Persson, the ministry was known as the Ministry of Sustainable Development (Swedish: Miljö- och samhällsbyggnadsdepartementet).
[5] The cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt — which took office on October 6, 2006 — used the short form name again,[6] transferred energy issues to the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications, and housing issues were transferred to the Ministry of Finance.
In 2014, the ministry reverted to its original name under the cabinet of Stefan Löfven.