Speech at WIREC, Washington 6 March

Liv Monica stubholt's speech at the Final Plenary Session of the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference WIREC 2008 (WIREC) on 6 March.

Global warming and its challenges need to be met by global action. Norway has made three pledges here at WIREC 2008;

Norway’s goal is to increase development aid to 1 percent of the BNI. We are now at approximately 0,96 per cent. We give high priority in our development aid program to environment and energy. We also focus on how we can contribute to increasing energy efficiency. All measures are important to curb global warming.

Over the next years, Norway will spend approximately 100 mill US$ annually on development aid through our bilateral environment and clean energy action programmes, and through our contribution to international partnerships such as REEEP, GEEREF and CHUE II.

In addition to international assistance, we have to sweep in front of our own door.

Norway has adopted the clear objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. This we will achieve by various measures, including:

• Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
• Energy efficiency, and
• Renewable energy

We will probably allocate up to 1 billion US$ on CCS technology development and deployment in the next 8-10 years.

For the purpose of promoting development of renewable energy and energy efficiency, we have established a government agency called Enova. We have set aside 3.6 billion US$ in a fund dedicated to projects to increase renewable energy and energy efficiency in Norway. In our 2008 national budget, we will spend about 265 million USD . Enova is mandated to get most value for the money spent in order to meet the strict targets set by the ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

These are the highlights of Norway’s pledge, and in concluding I will state that it is very important to combine domestic and global efforts to succeed.

Thank you for your attention!