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In Norway, at the ruling Labour Party's annual convention
on 19th April, Norway's Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg,
launched a plan including three commitments for Norway's climate
policy.
The commitments include -
- Norway will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 30%
by 2020;
- Norway will strengthen its Kyoto target and overcomply
by 10%;
- Norway will become 'climate neutral' by 2050 -
meaning that Norway will take responsibility for reducing
100% of the country's emissions.
Stoltenberg said that Norway - the world's number five oil
exporter - wanted other rich nations to set similar 'carbon
neutral' aims. "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 that was
met by a standing ovation.
Many Norwegians are worried about climate change, even though
the economy relies heavily on earnings from oil and gas. Burning
fossil fuels is widely blamed as a main cause of global warming.
"The greenhouse effect....is our most dangerous environmental
problem" - Stoltenberg said in his speech, listing risks
such as thawing of Siberian permafrost, death of the Amazon
rainforest or a spread of the Sahara.
Under the 2050 plan, domestic emissions would be offset by
cuts abroad or by buying emissions quotas on international
markets. Norway could, for instance, help China or India to
shift to solar or wind power from burning coal or oil.
Stoltenberg said his proposals already had backing from his
three-party centre-left cabinet, which has a majority in parliament.
Norway would also unilaterally sharpen its commitments under
the UN's Kyoto Protocol for fighting climate change to 2012
and cut emissions by 30 percent by 2020 - a tougher goal than
set by the European Union.
Norway would tighten its Kyoto goal by 10 percentage points,
Stoltenberg said. Kyoto obliges Norway to limit a rise in
emissions to one percent above 1990 levels by 2008-12. He
did not say how emissions cuts would be spread between cuts
at home or measures abroad.
Environmental pressure group Greenpeace said that Norway
should do more at home rather than use its vast oil wealth
to buy its way out of the problem.
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