Sustainable tourism - Balestrand 28.05.2008

Dear all!

I find the subject you are addressing here today very interesting, and it is therefore a great pleasure for me to be here today.

The Government’s goal is to help develop and promote Norway as a sustainable destination. A future-oriented tourism policy must properly address issues related to sustainability. Environmental degradation and climate change are two of the most serious challenges of our time, and Norway is firmly committed to specific environmental goals and ambitions.

On the other hand the unique Norwegian nature is our most important strategic advantage. We need to think long-term to preserve this for the future, but we also need to facilitate sustainable use today. The Government’s goal is to promote Norway as a sustainable destination.
 
Transport is, of course, a prerequisite for modern travel. Transport leads to emissions, some of which are harmful to the environment. We need to take this challenge seriously and work towards less energy consuming forms of transportation. The travel industry should aspire to be the first to utilize new emission reducing technologies for planes, ships and vehicles.

What we have done
We have to make sure that our resource management is conducted in a sustainable manner. That is for instance why we have introduced the 15 kg quota on fillet fish from tourist fishing. The use and protection of valuable natural areas such as national parks and protected areas is another field where it is important to find a good balance. We are working towards facilitating gentle tourism in the protected areas and we want our national parks to be more accessible through for example constructing paths and suitable parking lots to minimize the environmental impact.

We have also introduced an environmental fee for travellers to Spitsbergen. Revenues will be fed into the Svalbard Environment Protection fund, from which environmental projects will be financed.

In addition to this we have initiated a research program on
sustainable tourism. We are granting 16 million kroner over four
years to this programme.

These are only examples of our measures on this field. According to the short time I have here today, I will focus the rest of my speech here today on sustainable tourism in the transport sector.

Challenges linked to emissions and sustainable management of natural resources

Tourism and the changes in the climate
The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) report «Europe’s Environment. The fourth assessment» mentions tourism as one of the main sectors behind changes in the climate and biological diversity, causing pressure in coastal areas and mountainous regions. Transport is one of the main environmental challenges for many aspects of tourism. Using less energy-intensive forms of transport with fewer emissions will be a major challenge in the longer term. Tourism must play its part in ensuring that Norway’s ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions are met. The Government is encouraging the tourism industry to actively seek out green transport systems.

The Government is working on general measures related to climate change that can reduce tourism’s emissions of greenhouse gases, such as railways and gas-powered ferries. It`s also a goal that emissions of greenhouse gases from international shipping and air travel are included in binding emissions commitments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and in a global quota market, so that the sectors themselves bear the costs of their emissions of greenhouse gases. Norway has already decided to reduce national emissions from aviation. We are one of only a handful of nations that charge CO2 tax on domestic air traffic.

Air traffic
In December 2006, the European Commission proposed changes in the quota directive to include CO2 emissions from air traffic in the EU quota system. The proposal entails that all flights within the EU/EEA area would be subject to quotas from 2011, while from 2012 the system would be expanded to include all flights to and from the EU as well. According to the proposal, the airlines would have to buy climate quotas to counteract their CO2 emissions. At the same time, the aviation industry is in the process of developing new technological solutions that will lead to considerable reductions in emissions from air traffic. ACARE (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe) has set the target that emissions from aircraft manufactured in 2020 must be halved and that nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from aircraft must be reduced by 80 %. Targets have also been set for noise reduction.

Cruise ships
Cruise ships generate large amounts of greenhouse gases and NOx. Through the Gothenburg Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone, Norway has agreed to reduce its annual NOx emissions to max 156,000 tonnes by 2010. To this end, a tax was introduced from 1 January 2007 of NOK 15 per kilo of NOx emitted. This tax applies to emissions from propulsion machinery of 750 kW or more, including cruise ships. The cruise industry must accept its part of the responsibility for reducing emissions and is subject to this tax. The cruise industry should take advantage of possibilities afforded by new types of fuel and new types of ship. We are already noticing that new ships are being built according to very stringent environmental rules and that emissions and consumption of fuel per passenger have decreased. The UN’s maritime organization, IMO, is spearheading efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions from shipping.

The authorities are currently collaborating with several industrial organizations to reach an agreement on binding, specific reductions in emissions. This kind of agreement would provide a provisional exemption from the NOx tax. Ships in cruise traffic would also be covered by this kind of agreement. The Government is paving the way for innovation and technological developments in shipping, for example through support for investments in ways of reducing emissions from shipping and development of NOx-reducing technology for use on ships.

I come from this part of the country myself, and I know how important tourism is for this region – and for the rest of the country. We must go on developing our tourism, but we must do it in a way that not damages our beautiful and valuable nature for our children and grandchildren. I would therefore repeat how great I think initiatives like this conference is. Good luck with the rest of the conference, and thank you for your attention.