Norway is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The new website carbonneutralnorway.no is established as part of the strategy in reaching the ambitious goal.
24/09/2007 :: “Climate change is one of the greatest problems facing the world. The CarbonNeutralNorway.no website – our new emissions trading initiative – will be an important tool in the efforts to make Norway carbon neutral by 2050,” says State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Geir Axelsen.
Transparent
The purpose of the portal is to provide relevant and consistent information for all actors, as well as the Carbon Neutral Norway website is established to ensuring that the Government’s emissions trading is carried out in a proper and transparent manner.
Responsible
Norway is already making a concerted effort in reducing emissions at both national and international level. The CO2 tax has helped to reduce emissions from oil production, so that emissions per unit produced are only a third of the average international level.
Statoil has been reinjecting CO2 into the Sleipner field since 1996. The company has been a pioneer in this field, and the technology it has developed is a concrete example of an effective step forward.
Now, the Government is voluntarily strengthening its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol by 10%, which will mean cutting emissions of CO2 equivalents by 5 million tonnes a year in the 2008–2012 period.
Investing in developing countries
“In addition to mitigating climate change, the purchase of credits from CDM and JI projects (Clean Development Mechanism) will also entail transfers of capital, knowledge and technology from rich to poor countries. This means that investing in the environment in developing countries is not just good environmental policy, it is also good development policy,” says Mr Axelsen.
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs