Downtown Oslo, Norway, November 17, 2020. -

Cornelius Poppe / NTB / AFP

Purchases of electric vehicles for its administrations or an increase in the carbon tax… The Norwegian government is proposing this Friday a range of measures to achieve its climate objectives.

The largest producer of hydrocarbons in Western Europe, Norway aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 55% by 2030 in cooperation with the European Union, to which it is closely associate without being a member.

This reduction should be 90-95% by 2050.

Ferries and buses included

“Human-induced climate change is having serious consequences for themselves, animals and nature around the world,” said Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

"Norway wants to do its part to curb climate change," she assured at a press conference.

Among the measures presented, the government proposes to impose from 2022 onwards “zero emissions” for public purchases of cars and vans.

Ditto for tenders for ferry connections from 2023 and city buses from 2025. Oslo also wants to promote biofuels and more than triple its carbon tax by 2030 to reduce it from around 590 crowns (57 euros) per ton today at 2,000 crowns (195 euros).

Measures that still need to be debated

Such an increase should help encourage CO2 capture and storage (CCS), a technological area in which Norway has made significant investments, particularly for carbon sequestration in geological layers under the sea.

These proposals are subject to change since the government, a minority, needs the support of other parties to get them adopted in Parliament.

"It is extremely positive that the government wants to increase the CO2 tax and introduce emission budgets", welcomed the Norwegian branch of Friends of the Earth.

"But they avoid the big and difficult questions about oil production, highway construction, airport expansion and energy efficiency," she added.

Accused of hypocrisy

Greenpeace, for its part, deplored that the proposed reductions in sectors escaping European CO2 quotas (transport, waste, agriculture, construction, etc.) be limited to 45% by 2030.

Powered almost entirely by clean electricity from hydropower, Norway is a pioneer in “zero emission” transport, an area where it is number one in the world.

Electric cars represented more than half (54.3%) of new registrations there last year.

But its leaders are also accused of hypocrisy insofar as they continue to award licenses for oil exploration, especially in the fragile arctic waters of the Barents Sea.

In December, the country's Supreme Court rejected the demand by Greenpeace and another environmental NGO, which called for the cancellation of oil permits in the Arctic, deemed unconstitutional by the plaintiffs and contrary to commitments made. under the Paris Agreement.

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