A presentation of environment, climate and energy challenges from a Norwegian perspective

Excellencies,

Probably at no time in history, except at times of war, has an issue climbed to the top of the international agenda with the same speed as climate change has done. One and a half year ago, climate change was discussed by ministers of the environment, scientists and NGOs, but it was not high on the agendas of presidents, prime ministers or ministers of finance. All of a sudden this has changed, and climate change is now the overriding issue for all world leaders. This is due to the urgency of the situation and the high stakes at play.

What is needed on the road to Copenhagen is of course leadership. We already have European leadership. What we are looking for now is American leadership. Without it, we will not succeed. But I am confident that we will see American leadership emerge, be it under Mr McCaine, Mr Obama or Ms Clinton.

We also need Chinese leadership. And I am confident that this too will emerge. The Chinese President and Prime Minister frequently make statements about climate change and a new Ministry of the Environment has recently been established.

With the combined force of Europe, the US and China, we will have the necessary global leadership. But we also need to bring India, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia, as well as NGOs and the international business community, on board.

How does Norway fit in to this? We will first and foremost be an active and responsible player in the multilateral system. On most issues we will look for the leadership of others. Norway does not, for example, have a major role to play when it comes to solving the problem of vehicle emissions. Norway has no car industry and is only a small market. It is developments in Japan, in California, and in Germany, that are important in this respect.

We have identified four areas where we can make a particularly useful contribution and where we will seek to work in partnerships with others.

The first is carbon capture and storage (CCS). I understand the critics of CCS, who maintain that it is wind, solar and other renewable forms of power that are the future and that we should rather focus on developing these. But I believe that oil, gas and particularly coal will remain the main sources of energy for many years. And that it is therefore vital to develop the technology for capturing and storing the emissions produced.

This is why we are making substantial investments in our Mongstad and Kårstø plants with a view to developing reliable and affordable CSS technology. Similar projects are also being planned in the US and the EU. 

We have to solve the challenges related to technology and security. We believe CO2 can be captured and stored safely. We have unique experience, for example from re-injecting CO2 into the Sleipner field in the North Sea.

The second area where Norway can make a difference is shipping. We are among the five largest shipping nations in the world. If we take a closer look at Norway’s emissions, we find that emissions from Norwegian ships are equivalent to the combined emissions from all other Norwegian sources.

Shipping must be part of the international emissions trading system. It is a complicated area, but we will work internationally to find a way of including shipping in the European – and later global – schemes for emissions trading.

The third area is the conservation of rain forests. We have allocated NOK 3 billion annually for this purpose. We are now working hard to find the right channels for these funds. There are a lot of issues to be resolved, but the money is there and the project manager will start work this week. Some of you will already know him; he is our former Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Hans Bratttskar. We will immediately enter into a dialogue with Brazil, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and other countries with major rain forest areas. We are interested in working with other possible donors. And we will work with the World Bank and the UN system. Our idea is not to work bilaterally, but to use our funds to strengthen a global multilateral system on rain forests.

The fourth area I would like to mention is developments in the Polar areas.

I would be grateful if you would report to your capitals that these are our four main priorities and that we are constantly looking for potential cooperation partners.

As you are all aware, I’m both Minister of the Environment and Minister of International Development. There are many linkages between the challenges are facing us in the two fields. Let me mention two.

Number one is that those who have contributed the least to climate change are paying the highest price. The African continent has hardly contributed, but will be suffering the most severe consequences. Many African states have very little capacity to adapt to climate change. The developed world must contribute, both financially and through the transfer of technology.

The second is that the multilateral system that is supposed to handle these challenges has many imperfections, including a profound lack of trust. Let me give an example. On the final day of the Bali Conference some countries tried to present a fait acompli. Officials (OK?**) from India raised their hands and asked why they had not been consulted. Then officials from China did the same. After just two interventions, it became clear that 40 per cent of the world’s people were not being represented.

Perhaps there was a time when decisions made by countries around the Atlantic Ocean counted as decisions for the world. But this is no longer the case, and it will never be again. We must create global structures that win universal confidence. If not, we will simply not succeed.

The only way to build such confidence is for the rich part of the world to show generosity and real concern about the problems facing humanity. We are determined to make our contribution and we look forward to cooperating with you.

Thank you.