The matter in summary: – Greenhouse gas emissions in Norway in 2023 were 2.3 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent lower than in 2022, a reduction of 4.7 per cent. – The biggest contributors to the decline are industry and construction, road traffic and oil and gas extraction. – The government is not on track with the goal of halving emissions, and is open to using quota purchases abroad to fulfill the obligations in the Paris Agreement. – Critics believe that a A significant part of the emission reduction comes from temporary changes, such as reduced activity in industry and agriculture, and the use of biofuel in road traffic. – Norway has been criticized by EFTA’s monitoring body (Esa) for lagging behind in emission reduction, and the transport sector believes it is on the verge of impossible to reach the 2030 target with today’s means. – The Norwegian Environment Agency will come up with more detailed emission figures at municipal and county level in December. The summary has been prepared by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. New figures from Statistics Norway show that greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 were 2.3 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent lower than in 2022. This corresponds to a reduction of 4.7 per cent, and are the lowest emissions measured since 1990. – The biggest contributor is industry and construction. But there is also a big decline in road traffic and oil and gas extraction, says senior advisor Trude Melby Bothner to news. – And who contributes the least? – There is heating in commercial buildings and households, there is an increase. – The emission arrows point in the right direction Norway is behind its own scheme to reduce energy use in Norwegian houses, and Enova has been criticized for prioritizing gigantic prestige projects instead of support schemes for most people. – The adjustment of the Enova mandate was completely wrong, said Energy Minister Terje Aasland (Ap) this summer. In October, the same government announced that it was not on track with the goal of halving emissions. In the “Green Book”, where the government reports on its own climate targets, the “cutback” was instead numbered at 26.3 per cent. The government therefore decided to use “flexible mechanisms” – i.e. quota purchases abroad – to fulfill the obligations in the Paris Agreement for a 55 percent cut by 2030. In the Hurdal platform, the same government set itself the goal of taking the entire cut domestically, without purchasing climate quotas abroad . Climate and Environment Minister Tore O. Sandvik says that “every quarter of a ton and every tenth of a ton we slow down global warming counts”. – The emission arrows are pointing in the right direction, but measures, regulations and policies are still required to reach the target, and boost Norwegian value creation and business for the low-emission society. He adds: – It will take time before we see all the results, but we will reach the target we have entered. The Norwegian Environment Agency will provide more detailed figures at municipal and county level in December. – Don’t be fooled The new figures from Statistics Norway are in line with the figures from June, which were criticized for not reflecting reality. – Don’t be fooled by the total of 4.7 per cent, said Head of Department at Bellona, Christian Eriksen. – A significant part of this comes from changes that have nothing to do with restructuring, such as reduced activity in industry and agriculture, and the use of biofuel in road traffic. These are “reductions” that can be reversed from one year to another. SV is the government’s budget partner, and will present its own proposal for the national budget on Thursday. – Although this is the largest decrease in emissions of greenhouse gases since the financial crisis, it is still a long way from what we need in terms of emission cuts, says Lars Haltbrekken, representative for SV and member of the Energy and Environment Committee. He announces that the emissions cut will be decisive for SV in the coming negotiations. – We see increasingly strong signs that the climate crisis is wreaking havoc with us. Last week with the storm in Western Norway and the storm in Spain. Now we must speed up the work on the major emission cuts. CO₂ in the atmosphere measured in parts per million particles (ppm)460 parts per million particles (ppm)? Click for an explanation of parts per million, abbreviated ppmGo to news’s Climate Status Why is the graph so wavy? This is about seasons. In summer, the amount of CO₂ decreases because plants and trees absorb CO₂ from the air. In winter, the plants die, the CO₂ escapes and the graph rises. Since there are more plants and trees in the northern hemisphere, the seasons here control the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. What is the problem with a lot of CO₂ in the atmosphere? The greenhouse effect makes the earth livable, but more greenhouse gases, such as CO₂, increase this effect and make the earth warmer . The graph starts in 1960 because this was the year when the world began to measure CO₂ systematically. It happened on Mauna Loa in Hawaii and the curve shows the measurements from there. Before the world became industrialized there was around 280 ppm CO₂ in the atmosphere (year 1700). The researchers found that out by analyzing ice core samples. Will there be less CO₂ in the atmosphere if emissions are cut? No, not immediately. If we cut emissions, the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere will only increase more slowly. The reduction in emissions must be large and last a long time before we can see an effect. Imagine that the atmosphere is a bathtub and the greenhouse gases are the water you fill in. Even if you turn off the tap, the bathtub will not run out of water. This is the case with greenhouse gases and CO₂. It takes a long time for CO₂ to break down in the atmosphere. This is why the experts want technology that sucks out greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, in addition to us cutting emissions. The world’s politicians have decided that they will try to limit the warming of the world to 1.5 degrees, compared to how the temperature was before the industrial revolution. Then we must keep the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere below 430 ppm, according to the UN’s climate panel. – On the border of impossible to reach the 2030 target, EFTA’s monitoring body (Esa) said last year that Norway was “lagging behind” and “must strongly consider several measures to reduce emissions”. At the same time, the transport sector said that it was “very demanding” and bordering on impossible to reach the 2030 target with the tools they currently have at hand: “The analyzes carried out show that it is not possible to reach the climate targets with realistic measures and associated necessary drug use by 2030” (page 13). – A decrease is positive, but we now see even more clearly how urgent it is, says Truls Gulowsen, leader of the Nature Conservation Association. – Norway has spent 33 years cutting just over 9 per cent. READ MORE: How is the climate going? Published 05.11.2024, at 11.53
ttn-69
Big decline in 2023, but is the change lasting? – news Vestland
