(Bloomberg) — A group of Norwegian organizations is putting together a panel of ordinary citizens to make recommendations on how the country’s future oil and gas wealth should be used.
The first citizen’s assembly, a 66-person panel that’s representative of the Norwegian population, will meet in the coming months. Its advisers include former finance minister Kristin Halvorsen and the first chief executive officer of Norway’s $1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund Knut Kjaer.
The origin of the assembly dates back to the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, when European countries turned to alternative energy sources and Norway’s profits from the sale of oil and natural gas soared, said Thomas Berman, leader of the secretariat.
This jump in revenues, as well as the growing value of the wealth fund, prompted seven civil society organizations including the World Wildlife Fund and Save the Children to call for a debate about how this money is used currently and in the future.
Participants will be drawn from a randomly selected pool of 40,000 citizens and then selected based on criteria such as age, gender, level of education and where they live in the country. At least 25% of the panel will be between the ages of 16 and 26, with its composition set to be confirmed by Dec. 10, Framtidspanelet secretariat member Sofie Furu told journalists Tuesday.
The group will deliver their recommendations in April next year. Kjaer, the former wealth fund leader, said he was interested in getting involved to promote representation of future generations in discussing the fund’s resources.
“We risk today creating a Dutch disease in Norway and destroying the foundation for future wealth creation,” Kjaer said, “because what is creating wealth in a nation? It’s not what you have in the bank, but it’s your ability to produce and we can destroy that.”
The Dutch disease refers to how resource wealth can drive hyperinflation.
A stakeholder panel of seven, including Kjaer and Halvorsen, will help design the process, select a group of five to eight experts to advise the assembly and also observe.
“Public debate in every country is dominated by people who are eager to discuss and to share their opinions and to have political impact,” Halvorsen said. “A citizens assembly is an opportunity to hear voices that don’t seek that kind of attention.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-30 05:00:00
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