Ministers, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I thank you for the opportunity to address this conference at its final stage. I am very pleased that you all have taken the time to come to Oslo to contribute to bringing the initiative on reduced gas flaring forward. I would like to share with you a few of my own reflections. I am pleased also on a personal note, having been a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and Environment in the Norwegian parliament for more than six years, coming from the constituency in Norway which is most dependent on oil and gas, Stavanger. Merging my two backgrounds, as a Development Minister I want to state that this is an important and timely initiative. Flaring of gas is a massive waste of resources. If these resources could be put to sustainable use it would be a great benefit for economic development and the environment. We have learnt here that flaring in Africa alone represents an energy loss equivalent to 50% of the energy consumption on the whole continent. Further, emissions of greenhouse gases from venting and flaring is equal to at least 10% of the reductions that industrialised countries have committed to under the Kyoto Protocol. Since relatively few countries and companies are involved, and most of them are represented here, this conference has been a great opportunity to bring this initiative forward. I hope we will succeed.

We consider the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Initiative a valuable vehicle to improve the sustainability of the global petroleum sector. Despite impressive progress in the last few decades, the sector still has significant environmental problems. Flaring is perhaps the most visible one.

One ambition of the Initiative is to improve the supply of global public goods. These include notably the benefits of reduced emissions of greenhouse gases. Other important indirect impacts are poverty reduction and economic development and increased energy security for developing countries with increased diversity of supply.

I welcome that the initiative is based on public/private partnerships. Remarks from a number of stakeholders indicate that this is necessary to move the initiative forward. Our experience with such partnerships in Norway confirms this view. Furthermore, this initiative has the potential to show that informal, non-bureaucratic initiatives can be used to help address difficult global problems. The win/win aspect of this public/private partnership means that everyone has an interest in and should feel committed to contributing to its success.

Donor governments have a role to play, for example in providing global public goods in cases where investments do not make sense from the individual investor’s point of view, but benefit society as a whole. However, we must be careful about additionality. ODA funds must be channelled to activities that have a clear development and poverty reduction impact. Climate related support should be in accordance with rules and guidelines of the Kyoto Protocol, and it should be additional. The oil industry should provide support in accordance with their own environmental and social obligations, and the benefits that will accrue to them. There is no reason for governments to inappropriately support the oil industry. Safeguarding the global climate is a shared concern where the private sector must also show public responsibility.

Norway has contributed so far by "initiating the Initiative" and by funding some of its initial activities. We are prepared to continue our support on a smaller scale, and we would expect other stakeholders to play a more important role as the initiative now develops. In a partnership we need the participation of all partners, both private and public.

Let me now comment on some of the proposed activities for the Initiative.

We welcome the call for targeted technical assistance to petroleum and environmental authorities in developing countries. Norway already provides a lot of such assistance. We welcome active and targeted co-operation with other development agencies.

In providing such assistance, we also need to consider "ownership" of the flaring issue in the countries where it is a problem. This should not be a case of rich countries imposing their views. Oil-producing developing countries really stand to benefit from reduced flaring. But the success of projects under this initiative will depend on them feeling they have ownership in the process. Ideally, this initiative should gradually become part of poverty reduction strategies, the framework of development co-operation in each country.

For reduced flaring to succeed much of the currently flared gas will have to go to export markets. But we shouldn’t forget local markets, where gas can have a positive impact on local economic development of the poor. Even some small-scale uses of gas can have significant positive development impacts. For example, not only does the use of bottled gas in rural areas help to provide a modern base on which the rural economy can develop. It can also provide local environmental benefits by replacing polluting and unsustainable use of wood fuel. In this regard it can reduce serious health impacts of indoor pollution from traditional fuels. Women and children suffer immensely from these health problems. Here, I agree with the ones emphasising the demand side stakeholders. Applicability is crucial. Those who know what is workable should have the decisive role.

Finally, I would like to emphasise the importance of statistics and monitoring. We know that there is a serious lack of knowledge about the scale of the flaring problem. This needs to be improved in order to set priorities and find appropriate measures. This is also important in the context of using the Kyoto mechanisms. To earn credits for reductions under the Kyoto Protocol you need to be able to credibly and accurately monitor emission reductions. The implication is that credible reporting and monitoring systems will be a pre-requisite for attracting "green" funds for flaring reduction projects. And this will be crucial. Furthermore, the Clean Development Mechanism, CDM, might offer new opportunities of such projects. This should be utilised.

This conference is attended by ministers and officials representing most of the important stakeholders in the process towards reduced flaring of gas globally. It has given us important directions for our future co-operation. We must include all interested parties. The co-operation should be based on our common desire to improve the global environment and to reduce poverty.

I see that the next important milestone and target must be the coming World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. We will actively support the profiling of this issue in Johannesburg and I will invite all the other participants here, private and public, to do the same. Here, a partnership initiative (type 2) could be one idea.

Our co-operation has to be informal on a voluntary basis and based on common interests. This is in my view an important advantage. We can skip over lots of bureaucratic and diplomatic red tape and focus on implementation. As long as we are agreed on our common goals and common interests, I think that we will succeed.

I want to use this opportunity to thank the World Bank and the IFC for its skilful handling of this project so far, and I am confident that they will be able to take it forwards from here in the same skilful way.

The Norwegian Government will continue to support this co-operation. We financed the start-up together with the World Bank and the IFC. We are expecting other stakeholders to come in strong and support the future process and give it a broad base politically as well as financially. Bent Svendsen has outlined possible ways forward to get the initiative going. I promise you: From the Norwegian side, we will do our part. We are committed to follow this through. But we need your commitment to bring it forward. Both governments, the Bank and IFC – and the private sector. This initiative is now our shared responsibility. It is up to us to make it a reality on the ground.