At the beginning of January, news was able to report that 44,000 interventions have been made in Norwegian nature in five years. Several politicians have reacted to the revelation, and today the MDG went to the Storting with a number of proposals. One of them is to charge for development in new areas, a nature tax. – Because today it is completely free to destroy nature. And that means that it will always pay off for a developer to argue to build on what is called virgin land instead of building where there is already a closed factory. Because then you must first dismantle and remove it, says parliamentary representative Une Bastholm (MDG) to news. – Won’t this treat town and country differently – and punish those who initially built out less? – It will primarily make a difference between types of land, and make it more expensive to build down the nearby forest instead of an unused plot in the middle of the city centre, regardless of where in Norway it is. She says the point is to give nature a price for developers that better reflects the cost to society of nature being destroyed. But the municipality that owns the areas will not get any of the income, if MDG gets what they want. – It will suddenly make it worthwhile to destroy nature. So the natural tax is intended to go to the state. Bastholm suggests that the income can go into a fund that finances the restoration of nature. – Not good enough Storting representative for SV Lars Haltbrekken says the party is positive about such a fee. – It’s something we want to support, definitely. But that is not good enough. – Are you then going to allow cabin builders to build out new cabin fields in exchange for them paying for it? It is much more effective with a ban. Lars Haltbrekken (SV) wants a ban on building on bogs and the development of new cottage fields. Photo: Geir Bjarte Hjetland / news At the same time, SV has already got through in budget negotiations that building on bogs should be prohibited. But it will take time. The proposal has not yet been sent out for consultation. – Until these bans are in place, tax is a good alternative. Bastholm agrees that the nature tax must be an addition in the long term. – Nature tax must be added to a principle of land neutrality, and that principle means that you protect a number of areas that should not be built on at all. The third so-called green party in the Storting, Venstre, is also positive about MDG’s proposal. – The destruction of Norwegian nature must stop. That is why Venstre completely agrees with the MDG in the principle that it must cost money to destroy nature, says the party’s environmental policy spokesperson, Ola Elvestuen, but… – Whether we support the MDG’s specific proposal depends on the wording, but we support the principle, says the former minister of environmental protection for news. The farthest left-wing parliamentary party, Rødt, also likes what they hear from the MDG. – In the first instance, Rødt is positive about investigating a nature tax properly, as one of several measures to prevent natural degradation. We are concerned that any tax should not become a cushion in a zero-sum game, where the developer buys the opportunity to destroy nature, says Sofie Marhaug in Rødt. But the ruling Labor Party pours cold water on those who thought this could slide right through. – I am not sure whether a nature tax is the solution, but we are open to seeing this as part of the work on the nature report, says Mani Hussaini, who sits on the energy and environment committee for Ap. He also adds that the government is working on a new nature report which, according to him, “should promote various solutions to look after nature in a better way”. But Hussaini also says that: – In the same way that polluters today have to pay for their emissions, those who destroy nature should also pay, or restore. The other government party, the Center Party, and the Conservative Party have not responded to news’s inquiries in this matter, while the Progress Party does not want to make a statement until they have seen the proposal for the MDG. Thousands of interventions At the beginning of January, news published a unique survey of natural destruction in Norway. With the help of artificial intelligence and satellite images, we found 44,000 interventions in nature in five years. But construction does not only take place in “ordinary” nature. The survey also shows thousands of interventions in various types of particularly important nature. news documented millions of square meters of lost nature in each of these nature types: marsh wild reindeer areas intervention-free nature beach zone the areas around rivers and streams selected and red-listed nature types, such as old forest All these are areas that three governments in a row have decided that the municipalities must be particularly careful about. Nevertheless, Norway sacrifices a total of two football pitches of this nature per day, the mapping shows.
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Will have paid for all construction in untouched nature – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
