But Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s Minister of Climate and the Environment, says the country intends to heal the climate while continuing to explore even greater output of fossil fuels.
Equinor, the state-owned company formerly known as Statoil, has promised to cut its operating emissions in half by 2030, mostly by making actual greenhouse gas reductions, rather than buying carbon offsets. But it has no plans to stop searching for new reservoirs, despite the International Energy Agency warning in 2021 that no new fossil fuel exploration or development should take place if the world is to meet its climate goals.
“But that does not justify exploring and investing in new platforms and new oilfields, which is what is also happening,” said Sigrun Gjerlow Aasland, managing director of the Zero Emission Resource Organisation, a Norwegian non-profit climate advocacy group. sector’s emissions remain at 2005 levels, and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association expects a slight rise in 2023 as more gas is sent to Europe.
Yet even fierce critics of Norway’s petroleum dependence acknowledge that the country should be able to do exactly as it has said: dramatically cut its own emissions, while selling fossil fuels.In part, that’s because rigorous carbon taxes have created economic incentives. Some projects to electrify offshore platforms are cheaper than paying those taxes.
howardgreennews Hard pass.
6/6 Notably the *increase* alone in global oil consumption for 2023 is projected to be (by the IEA) about 2 million barrels per day ... which, coincidentally, is roughly equivalent to Norway's *entire* oil production output.
5/6 But Norway is correct; if they move from being simply partly-virtuous and annoyingly hypocritical to shut-it-all-in-full-virtuosity, their oil production would quickly be made up by Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran & others.
4/6 Norway's domestic emissions, while declining in large part to their hydro endowment, do not even represent rounding error in global emissions &, indeed, the growth alone of emissions in a single year of cities like Shanghai likely rivals the entire GHG output of Norway.
3/6 In any case, the article makes clear that Norway's national gov't sees their oil & gas reserves (rightly or wrongly) as being strategic, indeed foundational, to Norway's economic welfare & long-term interests.
2/6 Contrast that with Alberta which has little direct gov't involvement but has the complexity of 2 levels of gov't overseeing it & who are at constant war with each other - with the fed gov't ideologically opposed to oil & gas development.
1/6 Big differences between Norway & Alberta are ignored; state-owned Equinor monopolizes oil & gas development in Norway as an arm of the state. Setting aside criticism & activist noise, they have the full political/regulatory support of the state.
GFY. Norway too