The Norwegian parliament has agreed to accelerate plans to become totally carbon neutral, now setting their target in 2030 rather than 2050.
The announcement comes as a means of ensuring success of the terms of the Paris Agreement, and is contingent on similarly bold commitments being made by other countries signed up to the agreement.
The proposal, which was passed without the support of Norway’s ruling minority coalition parties, was worded as follows: “Climate neutrality shall be accelerated to 2030, as long as there is a global and ambitious climate agreement in place in which other developed countries undertake major commitments.”
The ruling coalition, made up of the Conservative and Progressive parties, argued against the proposals but were overruled and outvoted in the end.
The move follows on from a motion passed last month that made Norway the first country in the world to fully ban deforestation, after a parliamentary vote.
These series of moves are important for Norway, the 15th largest oil producer in the world and the largest in Europe, and the climate neutrality commitment is certainly an optimistic one.
However, the leader of Norway’s Green party argued that, regardless of optimism, it is necessary if the Paris Agreement’s ultimate goal of global temperature increase to less than 2 degrees above pre-industrial revolution levels is to be met.
Rasmus Hansson said: “This [the climate neutrality commitment] is a direct response to the commitments Norway took on by ratifying the Paris agreement and means that we will have to step up our climate action dramatically. ‘2050’ is science fiction. ‘2030’ is closer to us now than the year 2000.”
Norway’s carbon emission levels are currently at around 53 million tonnes per annum, and part of this latest proposal will involve reducing this through increasing involvement in carbon emission trading schemes. Emissions trading schemes work by exchanging effective permits for certain volumes of emissions between polluters, allowing ultimately for net reduction of emissions at relatively low costs.
The proposal said: “climate neutrality can be achieved through the EU emissions trading market, international cooperation on emissions reductions, emission trading and project-based cooperation.”
Vida Helgesen, climate minister and member of the Conservative party who opposed the proposal, said that part of the reason why he did was that the emission trading programs that seem to be being relied on actually expire in 2020.
Speaking to the Guardian, he said: “The reason why we’re not comfortable with this proposal is frankly that the methods parliament is pointing to are currently not available and the only one that is available right now, won’t be after 2020.”
Helgesen and the rest of the incumbent government argue that holding back on making the commitments that have just been made would have been more prudent, and would have given Norway more bargaining power following the next review of the terms of the Paris Agreement.
However, Hansson dismissed this. He said: “Our climate neutrality position could mean nothing if it is done that way. Norway cannot claim to be a contributor to the 1.5C target if we continue to push for more oil and gas activity.”
His talk of increased oil and gas activity likely refers to a decision earlier this year to award more than 50 new licenses to gas and oil production companies, with head of industry making the case that Norwegian gas is far better for the environment that coal and as such would help reduce emissions in the long run.
Meanwhile, earlier on Wednesday, French president Frarncois Hollande became the first world leader to officially finalise ratification of the terms of the Paris Agreement.
The Agreement comes into effect officially when the so-called 55/55 threshold is met. This happens when countries that account for 55% of the population, and 55% of the total greenhouse gas emissions across the world officially ratify the terms.
“Signing is good,” Hollande said, “ratifying is better.”
