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Mr Kim Traavik, Deputy Foreign Minister of Norway

Meeting the climate and energy challenge: Norway’s approach

The Second Trans-Atlantic Co-operative Research Conference Washington, 5 October 2004

Although Norway’s approach to the climate and energy challenge is global in character – after all, these are global issues - it is also heavily influenced by our geographical situation, on the northern rim of the Eurasian landmass.

Yet another determining factor is of course the fact that we are a major producer of oil and gas, and the world’s third largest exporter of oil.

Over the last decade, the situation in the High North has changed significantly. Wide-ranging cooperation has replaced geo-strategic confrontation. Contacts are flourishing at all levels.

For example, the amount of people-to-people interaction across the Russo-Norwegian border is truly amazing. Only a decade or so ago, this border was essentially closed.

But while the importance of the military-strategic dimension has receded, other challenges have come to the fore. Two are particularly important.

First, the High North contains rich and valuable natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable. And second, the natural environment is extremely fragile and vulnerable.

The marine ecosystems are among the most productive in the world and include crucially important spawning areas for valuable commercial fish stocks such as cod.

And the continental shelves of the northern seas contain enormous reserves of petroleum. Some experts reckon that up to 25% of the world’s unfound reserves of oil and gas are located in the Arctic.

Extraction of these resources will open important economic opportunities for the countries on whose territory they are located, primarily Russia and – to a lesser extent - Norway. And it will enhance the security of energy supply of countries such as the United States.

The exploitation of petroleum reserves offshore in the Arctic has not yet really started. At present, Norway and Russia are each in the process of developing one field, and these will come on stream during the next couple of years. The real challenge lies ahead, when Russia starts to tap its enormous resources.

The growing demand for imported energy from both the US and the EU will inevitably increase the level of oil and gas exploration and production in the Russian

North.

Hence, more tankers will be sailing along the Norwegian coast on their way to North America and Europe. Protecting the highly vulnerable environment along the coast of northern Norway and in the Barents Sea from oil tanker accidents will be an enormous challenge. An Exxon Valdez-like accident would have catastrophic effects.

But such scenarios are of course not inevitable. They are not Greek tragedies waiting to unfold. In the North, the petroleum industry must operate under strict environmental regulations and make use of technology that meets the highest environmental standards.

Norway is taking steps to ensure that this is the case in so far as the Norwegian industry is concerned. The challenge will be to ensure that Russia enacts and implements similarly strict legislation.

Today, threats to the Arctic environment largely originate from areas far south of the region.

For example, residues of pesticides used in developing countries are carried by air and sea currents to the north, causing increasing health hazards to humans as well as wildlife.

But global warming is now without a doubt the most pressing item on the Arctic environmental agenda.

The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment has documented that Arctic climate change is real and happening, and that it is likely to have serious consequences for human settlements, not least those of the indigenous peoples, as well as for the flora and fauna of the north.

The ice of the Arctic is melting. Open sea has already been observed around the North Pole in the summertime. The melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet broke all records in 2002, and current estimates indicate that the summer ice sheet may disappear by the end of this millennium.

And of course, what is happening in the Arctic is a harbinger of things to come in other parts of the world. From the climate change point of view, the Arctic really is the canary in the mine shaft.

The ACIA is a landmark achievement. Bob Corell and his colleagues in the seven Arctic Council countries have done an excellent job of putting together the first comprehensive and detailed synthesis of all the available knowledge on climate change and its consequences in the Arctic.

The Assessment provides essential data on which governments can and should base their response to the challenges of climate change, individually and – to the extent possible - collectively. We look forward to the presentation of the ACIA report during the forthcoming Arctic Council ministerial meeting in Iceland in November.

As governments, we have a duty to make the public aware of the reality and the implications of Arctic climate change. The Arctic Council member states have a responsibility to make the rest of the world aware of the findings of the ACIA.

A good place to start would be at the next conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Buenos Aires in December.

Norway has high ambitions for the ACIA. We would like the process to result in more than just an assessment of the scope of the problem. We are in favour of a separate document from the ACIA on policy recommendations, as foreseen at the ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council in Barrow, Alaska four years ago.

And we will continue to push for joint international action with a view to preventing and mitigating to the extent possible negative effects of Arctic climate change. As we see it, climate change should remain a key item on the agenda of the Arctic Council meeting in the years ahead.

Ladies and gentlemen,

More than 120 countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

Now there is a real chance that the Protocol will at last enter into force. Russia’s recent move towards ratification is a watershed event. But the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, the US, is still outside the Protocol. We hope the US will eventually reconsider its position.

The Kyoto Protocol is of course only a modest first step in the right direction.

But the Protocol’s flexible mechanisms, including emissions trading, are a significant innovation. Industrialised countries bear the main responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions, and must also take the lead in making a truly global effort possible.

But unless large emitters among the developing countries, such as China, India, Brazil, and South Africa, also do their bit, our efforts will not succeed. It would of course be easier to get the developing nations on board if all the major industrialised emitters joined up.

Tony Blair recently pointed out that the full effects of climate change will not be felt until after the time for the necessary political decisions has passed. He is right, of course. This is a classic dilemma for democracies, which tend to fix their attention on much shorter time horizons.

But we need action, and we need it now. Tony Blair’s announcement that the UK intends to make climate change a key issue for its coming chairmanship of the G8 offers some hope that action will be forthcoming.

Thank you for your attention.