Norway to be 'carbonneutral' by 2050
Friday, April 20, 2007
NORWAY will aim to offset all emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 with the world's toughest national target for fighting global warming, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday.
"Norway would be the first country in the world to take on such a concrete commitment," Stoltenberg said in a proposal to his Labour Party for braking a warming that is widely blamed on heat-trapping gases released by burning fossil fuels.
He urged other rich nations also to set a goal of "carbon neutrality". In Norway's case this would mean that all emissions by the country would be offset by cuts somewhere else, for instance by investing in wind or solar power in poor countries to shift from coal or oil.
Stoltenberg also said that he wanted Norway, the world's number five oil exporter, to cut emissions by 30 per cent by 2020, tougher than a unilateral European Union goal of at least a 20 per cent reduction. Norway is outside the EU.
And he said that Norway would tighten an existing goal under the UN's Kyoto Protocol, which now obliges Norway to limit a rise in emissions to one percent above 1990 levels by 2008-12.
He said that Oslo would tighten its goal by 10 percentage points.Reuters
"Norway would be the first country in the world to take on such a concrete commitment," Stoltenberg said in a proposal to his Labour Party for braking a warming that is widely blamed on heat-trapping gases released by burning fossil fuels.
He urged other rich nations also to set a goal of "carbon neutrality". In Norway's case this would mean that all emissions by the country would be offset by cuts somewhere else, for instance by investing in wind or solar power in poor countries to shift from coal or oil.
Stoltenberg also said that he wanted Norway, the world's number five oil exporter, to cut emissions by 30 per cent by 2020, tougher than a unilateral European Union goal of at least a 20 per cent reduction. Norway is outside the EU.
And he said that Norway would tighten an existing goal under the UN's Kyoto Protocol, which now obliges Norway to limit a rise in emissions to one percent above 1990 levels by 2008-12.
He said that Oslo would tighten its goal by 10 percentage points.Reuters
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