Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen from all over the world

It is a great pleasure for me, on behalf of the Norwegian Government, to welcome you to Oslo and Sustainable Building 2002. Since I am responsible for the Ministry that is the focal point in Norway of UN Habitat, it is a special pleasure to greet Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, the Executive Director of that organization. Our Ministry, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have supported financially, and otherwise, the work of UN Habitat from its inception, and we are happy to mention that the Norwegian funding of the Programme has recently increased.

Unfortunately, my colleague the Minister of the Environment is unable to be here today. He regrets missing this excellent opportunity to address, and meet, the people who are responsible for implementing many of the goals that were formulated during his participation at the Summit in Johannesburg.

We had ambitious goals before Johannesburg! Many of them have been achieved, but not all. What was achieved in Johannesburg, though, is quite sufficient to define an international framework that, hopefully, will both stimulate and enable you to develop and deploy sustainable building solutions and products.

Johannesburg was different from the Rio conference in 1992. In Rio, the international community defined the vision, namely sustainable development. In Johannesburg, the focus was on realizing this vision. The main document resulting from Johannesburg, the ‘Plan of Implementation’, defines concrete goals and timescales for sustainable development.

But the delegates there, over 100 heads of state and many thousands of other politicians and civil servants, cannot make it happen alone. They can create an encouraging framework, by hopefully changing laws and regulations, steering research and development, and adjusting taxes, but it is only you, architects, engineers, investors, advisors, and, of course, public planning authorities, who can make Johannesburg really happen.

It is therefore a great pleasure for me to see so many of you, from so many countries, assembled here so soon after Johannesburg, to share information and competence in this field. I hope that you will see the environmental challenge not as just a problem, but also an opportunity. An opportunity to increase quality and reduce costs — in short, doing better business.

This summer, we have all seen an example of how climate change is a huge threat to our society. Here in Norway, we have enjoyed a record-breaking warm and fine summer, but other parts of Europe have not been so fortunate. Rain and flooding has ravaged many countries. Scientific evidence indicates that the rising global temperature will make abnormal weather conditions like this more common. A recent report from the UK Government's Energy Saving Trust estimates that, in the UK alone, buildings and land worth over 300 billion dollars are under threat from flooding.

Before Johannesburg, we knew that progress on climate change would be difficult. We were therefore glad to contribute to progress on the Kyoto protocol – the most important international tool for regulating emissions of climate gasses. We also fought hard for concrete goals for increasing the utilisation of renewable energy… but we lost. But many others in Johannesburg were sympathetic to this cause. This lead to the establishment of an international coalition between many countries, including the EU, Switzerland, New Zealand and Norway, whose goal is to promote a substantial increase in the global utilization of renewable energy.

Implementing the resolutions made in Johannesburg is a national responsibility, which we are already working with. In Norway, we already knew that the building sector is a major player (or should I say culprit?) in the Climate Change Challenge. About 40% of all our energy use is connected to buildings. Norway is fortunate in having access to large quantities of relatively cheap, renewable hydroelectric power. Our total energy production and consumption are now just in balance, but consumption is increasing – houses, shopping centres, and even holiday-homes are getting larger, and more luxurious.

The easy access to cheap electricity in Norway has restrained interest in energy conservation. Much of our electricity is used directly for heating, whereas use of heat pumps, for example, would give us about three times as much useful heat for each kilowatt-hour. But heat pumps, and other energy-efficient solutions, need new infrastructure in buildings, and greater competence among architects, engineers, contractors, and caretakers alike.

Building up this new knowledge, and spreading it to everyone in this field is a major challenge that needs good partnership between the public and private sectors. I will come back to this challenge in a moment.

Although energy was the environmental issue in Johannesburg that was most relevant to the building sector, I would like to mention two more issues that are also particularly relevant:

Firstly, hazardous chemicals: Johannesburg concluded, after a long debate, on minimising the effects of using such chemicals by 2020. Some of these chemicals are used in buildings. We need to find replacements.

Second is biodiversity: A decision was made to achieve a significant reduction in loss of biodiversity by 2010. Here the onus is mainly on planners and investors, for example, through preservation of wildlife corridors and greater awareness of how we affect biota.

Authorities in all countries have an important responsibility to create the boundary conditions such that it becomes both easy and profitable for companies, households, and individuals, to make environmentally sound choices. Much has already been done by the authorities in Norway, but we still have a long way to go.

The Government is clarifying the responsibility of the sectors for achieving environmental policy objectives through sectoral environmental action plans based on the principles of management by objectives and cost-effectiveness across sectors. Achievements according to these action plans are presented as part of the different ministries' annual budget proposal. Several ministries have made their plan of action, including my own.

The action plans are developed on the bases of national environmental objectives related to the following eight priority areas:

• Protection and use of biodiversity
• Outdoor recreation
• Cultural heritage and cultural environments
• Eutrophication and oil pollution
• Chemicals hazardous to health and the environment
• Waste and recycling
• Climate change, air pollution and noise
• International environmental co-operation and aid and the polar regions

Each of these target areas is assigned a long term strategic objective and a few (typical 3-4) quantitative national targets, normally to be reached in a more limited time (typical 4-5 years). The Government has decided upon both the strategic and the national targets for all the priority areas.

Key figures or indicators are now being defined for each of the national targets, setting a standard for the design of environmental monitoring and the reporting from the different sectors affecting the state of the environment. It should, however, be emphasized that this is not an «accounting» system pretending to give the complete story. On the contrary, The Government is aiming to focus on the main challenges and the sectors that can meet those challenges in the most cost-effective way.

In Norway, the environmental protection authorities have given local councils the authority to require waste management plans and information on waste resulting from construction and demolishing projects. The goal is to reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill sites, and instead stimulate more recycling of materials and products. We have also introduced a duty-fee on waste treatment. The size of the duty has been set to reflect the true environmental costs that waste causes, and to make it financially prudent to both reduce the amount of waste, and to increase recycling. This way, companies that use environmentally friendly solutions are rewarded economically and gain a competitive edge over other companies that pose a larger environmental burden for society. We see that this duty has had a significant impact on the building trade, with increased reuse, recycling and energy exploitation of waste.

As you know, the number of products and materials used in buildings has increased dramatically in the last 50 years. Many of the products and materials contain compounds that pose a risk to health and endanger the environment. Norwegian authorities have established a ‘blacklist’ with data on over 200 dangerous compounds and groups of compounds. The list helps companies to choose appropriate materials and products, also in the construction trade.

Environmental considerations are already integrated in many parts of the building legislation, and the authorities are actively working on spreading guidance on good solutions to the construction sector. Our building regulations state, for example, that all phases of a building’s life cycle, that is, from acquisition, and use, through to demolition, shall be conducted with only a modest load on resources and the environment, and without compromising quality of life or social circumstances. Constructions shall be designed and erected such that little energy is used, and little pollution is created during the building’s entire lifespan, including the demolition phase. The limits that building regulations set for energy consumption in new buildings, is now under evaluation, and may be further tightened. An important objective with a future revision is to stimulate more energy flexibility and to integrate renewables.

This summer, the government proposed an action plan for water-borne heating. Our goal is to increase the share of water-borne heating by 4 TWh (terawatt-hours) before 2010. Water-borne heating is important for us in Norway, as we need to reduce our dependence on electricity and increase the use of environmentally friendly primary energy sources for heating dwellings and other buildings. We will accomplish this by awarding financial support to good projects, supporting research, and dissemination of knowledge.

The Norwegian State Housing Bank (Husbanken) plays an important role in the country’s housing sector — it finances 40% of all new housing. A condition for getting a loan from the bank, for new housing, is that the dwellings must have a good, but modest standard. The bank can give higher loans, and in some cases a subsidy, for buildings with special qualities of benefit to society. This includes, for example, environmentally friendly solutions and suitability for the aged and handicapped. The future direction of the bank’s financial services will be discussed in a parliamentary bill, which will be presented to the Norwegian parliament in 2003.

Cooperation between the authorities and the building trade are crucial to Norway’s governmental policies aimed at solving the environmental challenges related to the building sector. The authorities can use their power to set favourable boundary conditions, but it is the building sector itself that must come up with, and apply, the solutions.

My Ministry has therefore collaborated with the Ministry of the Environment and all relevant professional bodies in the Norwegian building and real estate sector in a five-year programme, called the EcoBuild- programme, that has developed and spread knowledge on new techniques and technologies in the building sector for sustainable buildings. The key to the success of the programme has been accepting that the private sector must commit itself and provide its expertise for this work to be successful. The board of EcoBuild has therefore consisted of representatives from the private sector: architects, engineering consultants, investors, etc.

EcoBuild has worked strategically, far-sightedly, and ambitiously, to reduce the environmental loads related to the Norwegian building mass. By first charting their own environmental challenges, setting up their own environmental goals, implementing pilot and collaborative projects, network projects, network building, and spreading information and methods, the programme has laid the foundation for a more sustainable building sector in Norway. The programme has contributed to:

• reduce the total environmental load related to a building’s life cycle,
• promote product development and new activities related to the environment,
• make better buildings for the users,
  and
• reduce the economic costs for the building owners and tenants.

The programme has focused on challenges and solutions for:

• energy efficiency,
• material efficiency,
• waste,
• hazardous chemicals,
  and
• indoor air quality

Reducing energy consumption in buildings is possibly our greatest challenge. Energy consumption in the building sector has been increasing steadily for a long time. It is predicted that this trend will continue for all the OECD countries. The EcoBuild programme has however demonstrated that there is a considerable energy-saving potential in the building sector. We have many examples that prove that one can achieve energy savings, both in commercial buildings, schools, and dwellings, with features such as, flexible use of area, and combined energy sources.

The indoor environment and health is another challenge — How can we shape healthy and functional buildings? EcoBuild has worked especially on school buildings, for which the indoor climate is a critical factor for a good learning environment of our children. We have many good examples of how, by thinking creatively and environmentally consciously, one can create schools with very special qualities.

Better collaboration during the building process is another big challenge that the EcoBuild programme has highlighted. It is important to scrutinize the whole building process – from the development plan through to completion of the building, and beyond. All disciplines must collaborate to ensure an environmentally optimal solution. In Norway, we have many good examples of the positive consequence of working and across disciplines in the building process. For example, the Norwegian telecommunications giant Telenor has shown the significant advantages such an approach gives. Their new office complex in Oslo has now reduced their annual energy consumption area-efficiency by a factor of 4. The building client must set concrete and testable requirements; and architects, consultants, and contractors must collaborate in a new way to optimize the energy and environmental gains.

The EcoBuild programme has, demonstrated in a whole series of projects, that environmentally sound solutions are both functional and cost-effective. Saving material, energy, and transport resources, usually also means saving money. The EcoBuild programme has stimulated companies to use developed technology to save resources - and money.

The experience has also shown that the environmental problems related to the construction sector are not primarily a result of lack of environmental technology, but is equally connected to lack of awareness and knowledge, attitudes, routines and methods — and organization. This has been of such importance that the industry itself has grasped the challenges and found solutions that are adapted to the industry’s needs and distinctive character.

As a summary of the experiences in the programme period, EcoBuild has made a case study , "Eco-efficiency in the Building and Real Estate Sector", as a contribution to the OECD programme on eco- efficiency.

I wish to take this opportunity to praise the EcoBuild programme for all that it has achieved in its five-year period. I have registered that the sector is united in wanting to continue EcoBuild also after the New Year, when the programme officially finishes, to ensure continued dissemination of knowledge, and new projects. To what extent the authorities will contribute to continuation of the programme will be decided by the government when the final evaluation of the programme is made available.

The broad and comprehensive programme of this conference makes me sure that all will return home with useful experiences and ideas for future work. I hope that the conference can really accelerate the positive process of adaptation in the building sector, both internationally and in Norway. It is important to make visible the fact that protection of the environment, and competitiveness in the business, go hand-in-hand.

I also hope that new networks between different countries and disciplines will be established during these 3 days. I would like to emphasize the importance of international cooperation. We do not have to make the same mistakes in every country, but must learn from each other. We need to meet, and exchange ideas, and the Internet opens up for new and more sustainable ways of communication. We need to work together on research programmes and have easy access to the good results and practises.

On behalf of the government I wish you all a very successful conference!