Opening remarks by Prime Minister Støre at the Global Leadership Council´s meeting in New York

This text is based on a transcript of the speech

Good morning!

Thank you, Simon and Raj. Thank you for convening us here.

Last year we were by the river and now we are here in this building – it is amazing. It is – you know, coming from a small place, Oslo – this is great. Thank you all for coming.

I just came from CNN – where I tried to explain what the Global Leadership Council (GLC) is. Now – I mean – we are a kind of a “superstructure”, if we may call it that, on top of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP). But then, again, the real efforts of what we try to do are on the ground; counting the tons necessary to get emissions down and to create jobs. That is what we are working on – and driving this collective action.

I find it very inspiring to be here the second year, to see that this initiative is moving forward, and that it is part of – what shall I say – the “biology” of climate change from a political, market and societal perspective. We need many of these initiatives to pull in the right direction.

I met with the President of the World Bank in my office in Oslo last week. I know that he is not here today, but we agreed that we need to get these those forces to work in the right direction together.

It has been at the heart of this week at the UN General Assembly, it has been at the heart of the New York Week of Climate Change, and in other useful exchanges, and we are just a few weeks ahead of COP28. So, all this is underlining what we have to work on – collectively.

And for me as a Government, coming from Norway, I can see how this is really on top of the agenda of almost all walks of life. We have the local elections just behind us, and the energy transition is really among these big global issues that can be felt in every municipality in my country; because every municipality will have to deal with these issues: How do we get access to renewable energy that can secure new jobs, new energy and new opportunities in different fields? Where will the energy come from? How is the grid going to be expanded?

These are issues of daily lives of people in my country. It is not at home that we have the most “drama” around this, but it strikes me that energy transition is the biggest transition of any civilization. It is a change of an energy system.

Norway is sometimes recognized as an oil and gas nation, but we do not use oil and gas in our own economy. We are a hydro power nation. If we are going to move on and get more energy access, we need to build and get it from offshore wind, from land wind, from solar. We are now working on that. We are also investing in carbon capture and storage (CCS).

We are also working with partners like Brazil, Indonesia and DRC to develop the carbon sink of the forests. And there are optimistic signs; I was meeting with President Lula, and see what he has achieved during his few months in office to turn the tide. And likewise, in Indonesia, there are promising signs.

So, there are three essential opportunities – possibilities – here.

First, we need to reduce the emissions. What I like about the approach of the Global Alliance is the focus on counting tons. We really need to count them. And I think it was Bill Gates who said this at the Oslo Energy Forum: it is not interesting to discuss climate policy unless you can move the real issue, will it cut tons? And that will take us forward.

Second, we need to enable economic growth, and I salute the approach of the Global Alliance to focus on jobs. It has to be jobs on the other side. Cut emissions and create jobs.

And then, third, we have to deal with the expansion of energy access. It strikes me, when I was working with Gro Harlem Brundtland 30 years ago, when Sustainable Development was launched; that her commission was about development as much as environment, because these two are linked. And this is no less true today.

So, coming to what is ahead of us: focus on finance. How can we mobilize finance?

We created in Norway a Climate Investment Fund, where we put money with the promise to double our climate financing. We said that we are going to reach that target by mobilizing private money in addition to public money. We set 2026 as target, but I note today that by the end of 2023 we are already there. This has shown that for every “public dollar” we have been able to mobilize four to five “private dollars”. – Which means that if you are going to count this, these investments will lead to projects that can avoid emissions equivalent to 15% of Norway’s total emissions. This illustrates how it works.

And for next year's budget, we are now developing a mechanism of state guarantees for projects for renewable energy. We will use the AAA financing of Norway to guarantee for the private sector investing in renewable projects. And I have met so many in the private sector who say that this is just what we need to move on. So, this is a first; we are setting aside 5 bn (NOK) to see to how this can work.

And if it works – I have been discussing this with colleagues here in New York – I think this is a model that other countries can look into.

The challenge is of course to leapfrog the carbon-intensive economic model. The technology exists. But the costs are prohibitive for many developing countries. Hardware may be too expensive. Financing may not be available, and business models may be immature. All of that can be fixed, I believe.

And I believe that the schemes of the Global Energy Alliance are demonstrating how it can be done. So, as you said, Simon, we launched two concrete initiatives in April, making bold public commitments. One was to create a battery consortium to deal with “the green premium”, to get the prices down. And second, an initiative for scaling-up Distributed Renewable Energy systems (DRE).

So, I would like to thank all of you who have been engaging in these initiatives since April, to help refining the approach, because this is not something right out of the textbook; it has to be developed for help building momentum and for committing to projects in the field. And again, it has to lead the project where we again can say, will it cut tons?

So, I look forward to today's discussion. I think it is an opportunity to take stock – and more, to go forward and say: What have we learned? Where do we go from here? How can we best leverage this partnership?

There are documents prepared for this meeting, which propose a way forward. Let me just bring your attention to: A “Race to the Top” package on batteries and storage to be launched at COP28, by pilots in India and Malawi. It would really be great to go to the COP and demonstrate that this is really paving the way. And, a coordinated push on building mini-grids at scale in select economies, facilitated by GEAPP's planned investments of up to $300 million by 2027. So, these and other suggestions were set out in the pre-reads, built on the commitment we jointly announced in April.

So, I would just like to end by thanking you, Mr. President, and your staff for the work you have been doing to prepare. This is innovative work, building on experiences. Last year, we discussed the experiences from GAVI, the private-public partnerships. Now, I think we stand on more solid feet and can move forward. And I would like to thank my co-chair, Raj, and his colleagues here at Rockefeller Foundation for making today's meeting possible. Thank you.