Speech at Tsinghua University

Excellencies, faculty members, students

It is a great honour to be here today and to address a gathering of people who will have a decisive influence on how the world will develop.   I know that Tsinghua University ranks among the best universities in the world today.  And the faculty and students here represent the best and the brightest.

Indeed you will be at the forefront, mobilizing ideas and willpower that will bring  prosperity to China.

And the work you do here jointly will bring great honours to your country.

 

This is where the torch is being passed to new generations of leaders.

You have a unique opportunity and mission.

No generation before you has been in a similar situation.

Not only will you be able to lift additional hundreds of millions out of poverty.

So that all of China can be free from that scourge.

But you may also save the global environment for future generation

By making technology leaps of unprecedented scale and scope.

Thank you for receiving me so cordially.

***

Nothing is more of a privilege than seeking knowledge, with a free mind, keeping pace with the advances of the times.

Nothing is more of a privilege than seeking truth,  as China continues to reform, opens up, to become a more prosperous, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and modernized country.

Norway is privileged to be working with China at this exciting moment in history.

We have much to gain from working with China, but we also believe that China will gain from working with us.

A Chinese-Norwegian partnership would be a win-win-situation.

Or shuang-ying!

Norway is a stable, prosperous and open country.

We are rated favourably by the United according to social and economic performance.

We are highly competitive.

And we have extensive IT penetration.

So we must be doing something right!

We are fortunate to have huge energy resources, ranging from abundant hydro and wind power to vast reserves of oil and gas.

We produce and export oil equal to half of China’s consumption.

Most of our public petroleum revenues are invested abroad, in stocks and bonds. The value of these savings is now about equal to Norway’s gross national product.

***

By a good distance China will be the world’s No. 1 energy nation in the future.

In the space of a mere handful of years China will more than double its energy use.

Its footprint will grow.  

With 1000 new cars hitting the roads of Beijing every day,  and one new coal fired power plant opening every week, China is going to have an increasing impact on the global environment.

I am convinced that much of the change we will see the next couple of decades will come here in China. 

Because of your bristling economic growth.

Because of population density.

And because the modern Chinese will demand a more healthy environment.

This kind of political awareness and concern comes with rising incomes, as more and more people are entering the middle and higher income levels.

The answer lies in technology, management and human ingenuity

***

It is a commonplace in the west to say that China is not concerned with climate change.

I don’t believe that can be true.

 

A recent survey conducted by an American think-tank, the Chicago Council of Global Affairs, disclosed that the people of China are more concerned about climate change than Americans.

Global temperatures will rise by two to three degrees over the next 50 years.

This will severely affect food security.

We will see declining crop yields.

Species will face extinction.

Rising sea levels will inundate low-lying areas.

Hundreds of millions of people will be displaced.

Climate change will simply cost enormous amounts of money.

The British Stern report indicates that the cost of climate change could amount to somewhere between 5 and 20 per cent of gross domestic income.

In a sense, China holds the key.

China is a huge country, with four times the population of the United States, and it will continue to develop.

Global warming has come about because western countries have used fossil fuels to develop since the industrial revolution.

Now we are looking forward.

Towards the most serious rounds of global talks ever.

Consecrated to saving life on earth as we know it.

And China must play a central role.

Or else we will all fail this calling.

No other generation has faced a similar call.

 

China has a right to develop.

Make no mistake, none of us are asking

China to slow down its ascent towards prosperity.

We are calling on China to leap-frog the more polluting stages of development that many of us went through in the past.

Together, we must explore every technological and business opportunity that promotes change.

I believe that China will assume a leading role in this period of change, because few countries have so much to gain.

Today, we stand on the threshold of a new, green economy.

A truly new world order.

Which can rid the world of poverty

And save the climate.

This is our calling.

This can be done.

China has the potential of attracting the lion’s share of this newly emerging trillion dollar market. 

Which we today refer to as the Kyoto mechanisms, and the next generation of such.

The Clean Development Mechanism allows industrialised countries and companies to invest in for example energy efficiency projects.

The Norwegian Government attaches great importance to the mechanism. We are allocating public money to investments in clean development  projects.

But the really big investment will come when larges companies are compelled to offset their CO2-emissions.

The Norwegian government has recently introduced a quota system that forces our CO2-emitting industries to either reduce their own emissions, or to buy quotas – many of them abroad.

This is a major incentive for direct foreign investment, and transfer of technology

And China could be at the receiving end of such a cash flow, and still have its energy sector modernized.

Yesterday, I discussed possible projects with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. There are opportunities to be found in the fields of energy efficiency, renewable energy and – hopefully in the future – carbon capture and storage.

China has made impressive progress, including in the environmental field. Your country has set itself ambitious goals in terms of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Carbon capture and storage is a fairly new technology. However, Norway already has considerable experience.

I believe that carbon capture and storage will be essential in the battle against global climate change.

I hope, therefore, that this technology will be included in Sino-Norwegian research cooperation and investments.

Great achievements often start with a vision that seems to be bordering on madness.

And many of the most important scientific breakthroughs were underrated to begin with.

How much money was it right to spend on developing the first electric light-bulb?

China’s need for more energy may prove to be the driver of change that helps humankind solve the climate problem.

Norway is eager to work with China on solutions that will benefit both our countries and the whole world. 

Thank you.