Norway, meanwhile, is among countries still struggling to meet their own climate goals. Norwegian governments on both the right and left sides of politics still fiercely protect Norway’s offshore oil and gas industry, and have been slow to restructure the country’s oil-fueled economy to become more climate-friendly.
Norway’s carbon emissions in 2030 are supposed to be cut by 55 percent of what they were in 1990. The current Labour-Center government’s own estimates show they’ll only be reduced by 26 percent, and mostly through the government’s controversial purchase of climate quotas. That basically involves paying other countries to cut their emissions including, as in Norway’s case, large payments to protect rainforests in Indonesia and Brazil that can naturally offset emissions.
That can’t continue, argue even some of Norway’s leaders of business and industry. “One of the most important lessons we’ve learned after 30 years of quota purchase, is that we’ve had too little attention on conditions for cutting emissions at home,” wrote Jens Ulltveit-Moe, founder of the large and diversified industrial firm Umoe, in a commentary in newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) just as the UN climate summit ws beginning. He and Bjørn Kjærand Haugland, leader of the business-driven climate organization Skift (external link), think Norwegian policy is stalling any real progress in its own emissions reduction.
Industrialist Jens Ulltveit-Moe has been urging tougher climate measures in Norway for years. Here he is speaking with former Climate Minister Tine Sundtoft back in 2015. PHOTO: Klima- og Miljødepartementet/Tor Lie
Ulltveit-Moe has earlier been active in shipping, shipyards and other offshore ventures more known for generating emissions than reducing them. Ulltveit-Moe emerged several years ago, though, as a climate activist himself and thinks Norway’s use of quota purchases amounts to a “dangerous illusion” for a wealthy petro-state. It’s no longer smart, he and Haugland argue, “to pay other countries to cut their emissions while we avoid doing the same here at home.”
Other business leaders, especially in the oil and gas industry, counter that they are making strides in cutting emissions from offshore platforms, storing carbon underground, electifying platforms and investing in offshore wind. There also have been major efforts to subsidize battery factories, with mixed results, and the City of Oslo may finally be able to move forward with a carbon capture and storage system at its large garbage and recycling plant at Klemetsrud.
It’s all still not enough, though, to meet climate goals that themselves are criticized as inadequate. After apparently giving up on meeting its initial “demanding” goals for 2030, the Norwegian goverment still claims it will “further develop and strengthen climate policy year by year, cut emissions and create jobs” through such measures as higher fees for carbon emissions, ongoing incentives for electric vehicles and zero emissions for new ferry concessions. Critics are skeptical and the acting minister in charge of climate issues, Tore Sandvik, admits it will be “demanding” to meet emission goals in Norway. His government’s plan still relies heavily on buying climate quotas.
Ulltveit-Moe and Haugland warn that can cost as much as NOK 200 billion just by 2030. They urge the government to pay more attention to the state environmental directorate’s own proposals for cutting emissions in Norway by as much as 63 percent by 2035. Current policies are expected to yield only a 27 percent cut.
“We have said it before and it’s worth repeating,” said the directorate’s leader Ellen Hambro when she delivered its latest proposals last spring. “Climate-related restructuring must speed up!” She also argues that buying quotas will become far too expensive in the years ahead, and is convinced emissions can be cut within Norway through a variety of measures including more carbon capture and storage, more use of biomass and green hydrogen in industrial processes and ongoing replacement of fossil-driven energy with emissions-free energy.
Climate Minister Sandvik signing an agreement on climate measures with his counterpart from Benin. PHOTO: KMD
The final agreement that came out of the latest UN climate summit in Baku did at least produce what Kjetil B Alstadheim, political editor and commentator for Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, called “two important steps forward and one important signal.” Alstadheim, an environmental activist in his youth, has followed the climate debate for years and was in Baku to follow proceedings.
He was encouraged that COP 29 settled on new rules for paying for climate quotas that can make it possible for current Norwegian climate policy “to actually be carried out.” Not only has Norway been paying for rainforest preservation abroad, it has close climate cooperation with the EU that includes a quota system for emissions from industry and the oil business. An important new regulatory system for buying quotas can make Norway’s current climate policy “possible to carry out.”
There was also progress, Alstadheim noted, regarding the financing of climate measures in poor countries. The USD 300 billion a year was criticized as far from enough by poor countries themselves, but it’s triple what wealthy countries have been paying since 2022. The money is aimed at helping poor countries launch more renewable energy projects while dealing with the effects of climate change already occurring.
The US, EU, Norway and other countries have also urged countries like China and Saudi Arabia to contribute, and there’s been what Alstadheim called “a little signal” that China, which now has one of the world’s largest economies, will do so. China also emits more carbon per capita than the EU does, despite its huge population. Chinese leaders didn’t make any commitments, but Alstadheim noted that its deputy prime minister said China already has contributed the equivalent of USD 24 billion in climate financing in poor countries since 2016. That was viewed as an acknowledgement that China also has a great responsibility to contribute.
“Climate cooperation is still at a snail’s speed,” Alstadheim wrote. “The tempo is dispairingly low, but it’s worth noting that it’s going in the right direction.”
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=6747eafe88744722ae0d3d3029251188&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsinenglish.no%2F2024%2F11%2F26%2Fnorway-still-not-meeting-climate-goals%2F&c=10981741653371090961&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-11-26 07:52:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
