Norwegian Statement in Support of The Graz Declaration

President, Commissioners, colleagues,

On behalf of the Norwegian Minister for Transport and Communications and myself, I welcome this important informal Ministerial Meeting.

The Norwegian Government has an ambition: To cut greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector by 50 per cent by 2030.

People and climate friendly cities, cycling and efficient public transport is key. In Norway, we contribute to such a development by setting up a structure for binding obligations between our major cities and the government. Cities, in cooperation with surrounding municipalities, set targets and design concrete projects to transform the transport sector. The goal is that all growth in transport are to be taken by walking, cycling and public transport. We call the structure City Growth Agreements.

Electrification of transport will also be a key to success. We have ambitious policy goals in this area. For instance, all new passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and city buses should be zero emission by the year 2025. We also have goals for heavier trucks by 2030.

From January through September this year, battery electric passenger cars had a market share of 28 per cent. In September this year, the market share was 47 %.

In the maritime sector, we will have 70 electric or hydrogen powered car ferries coming in use by 2021/22. We have an EU funded project with development of a zero emission high-speed passenger boats, and we are working with hybrid solutions with even larger battery packages. Yara Birkeland will be the first autonomous electric cargo ship.

Our goals for cleaner transport rely on the technological development in the coming years. To stimulate technological development, we have ambitious plans on zero emission solutions. This is important for a sustainable Europe, the European transport sector and the competitiveness of the European auto industry.

We therefore support the Graz Declaration.