Norway Takes the High Ground on Climate Change
by RP Siegel
There was some dramatic news out of Norway this week, showing what is possible on the climate front if the political will is there. The Norwegian government announced that they would cut their carbon emissions by no less than 40% from 1990 levels by the year 2030. This puts them in line with the ambitious target set by the European Union (EU).
Norway’s government says they want to join the EU’s climate policy framework, even though they aren’t members of the EU. They will continue to participate in the EU’s carbon trading scheme, though they will no longer use offsets to meet their target, relying instead on actual reductions.
Despite being Europe’s largest oil producer and the world’s third largest producer of natural gas, Norway relies mostly on renewables for its own domestic purposes. Abundant hydropower provides 97% of Norway’s electricity. Much of the rest comes from wind and biomass. Norway’s state energy company Statkraft, is the largest renewable energy generator in Europe. Given the country’s wealth of renewable resources, some environment groups were disappointed that the target wasn’t higher, but Frederic Hauge of the Oslo-based Bellona Foundation acknowledged that joining with the EU would make this target internationally binding.
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Image credit:Trond Stordal: Flickr Creative Commons
RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. He has been published in business and technical journals and has written three books. His third, co-authored with Roger Saillant, is Vapor Trails, an eco-thriller that is being adapted for the big screen. RP is a professional engineer – and a prolific inventor, with 50 patents, numerous awards, and several commercial products. He is president of Rain Mountain LLC and is an active environmental advocate in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Justmeans, he writes for Triple Pundit, ThomasNet News, and Energy Viewpoints, occasionally contributing to Mechanical Engineering, Strategy + Business, and Huffington Post.
