Imagine one of the world’s richest countries. It is a small country with a small population but a lot of oil. The wealth covers education and healthcare for citizens. Are you thinking of Norway? Or the United Arab Emirates? – Both the Gulf countries and Norway have in common that they are “petromonarchies”. Both are financially dependent on exporting oil and gas, says Erik Skare, researcher in Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oslo. Fossil energy is a major topic of contention here in Dubai, where the climate summit is being held. Photo: AMR ALFIKY / Reuters – If we talk about the category of countries that are expanding oil and gas production while participating in the Paris Agreement, Norway and the Emirates are in the same group, says Natalie Jones, adviser at the think tank IISD. She is in Dubai as an observer at this year’s climate summit, and follows the negotiations on fossil energy closely. – All over the world, all oil and gas companies say that they want to be system man again. But they can’t all be right, she says. The double role Dubai is best known as a spectacular and luxurious metropolis in the desert. Right now it is the climate capital of the world. All countries are gathered here to find solutions to humanity’s greatest crisis. Among the main topics are oil and gas. Over 100 countries will have a decision to phase out all fossil energy without carbon capture and storage. The UN Secretary-General supports the complete phasing out of fossil energy. – We cannot save a burning planet with the help of a fire hose filled with fossil fuels, said António Guterres from the podium in Dubai. Both the Emirates and Norway have been given responsibility for making this year’s summit a success. While the Emirates run the whole show, Norway will lead some of the toughest negotiations. At the same time, none of them have concrete plans to scale back their own oil production any time soon. On the contrary. The skyscrapers of Dubai. Air quality in the Emirates is becoming dangerously poor as a result of the production and consumption of fossil energy, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch. Photo: GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP “Develop, not liquidate” The Emirates’ largest oil company Adnoc will spend almost NOK 1,700 billion over the next five years to increase oil production. The company’s boss, Sultan al-Jaber, is also known as president of the climate summit. The mantra for Norway’s fossil fuel policy is that we should “develop, not phase out”. This summer, 19 oil and gas projects on the NCS were given the green light. New oil licenses will be awarded in January. Oil companies such as Adnoc and Equinor, where the state is the main owner, account for more than half of the world’s oil and gas, says Jones. A man with many hats: oil chief and climate chief Sultan al-Jaber. Photo: Truls Alnes Antonsen / Milana Knežević/ news Albrecht Hermann Hofheinz is associate professor of Middle Eastern studies at UiO, and has been part of a research project on the green shift in Norway, the Emirates and Kuwait. He has analyzed Arab media. Similar arguments are repeated there and in Norway, he says. – The fact that we cannot stop producing oil and gas immediately, because the world actually needs more energy in the coming decades. Stopping fossil fuel production will only lead to chaos. Companies such as Adnoc say they must ensure to the best of their ability to produce oil and gas in the most climate-friendly way, he explains. – Norway is not an oil state, however, the leaders of the Emirates say that they have big climate ambitions. The emissions must go down, they promise. The goal is a 40 percent cut by 2030, compared to Norway’s 50 percent. The oil wealth is also used for climate solutions. Where Norway, for example, invests heavily in the development of carbon capture and storage, you will find one of the world’s largest solar parks in Dubai. Newly opened Al Dhafra solar park consists of around 4 million solar panels. They will provide energy to 160,000 Emirati households. Photo: KARIM SAHIB / AFP – We have worked for the past decades to diversify our economy and build our capacity in the renewable and clean energy sector, said President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in his address to world leaders at the climate summit. – Norway is not known as an oil state. We are an energy state. We have hydropower, oil, gas, we will eventually get offshore wind, we will be a leader in hydrogen. And we are at the forefront of the world in capturing and storing CO₂. So that’s the whole field, said Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to news in Dubai. There should be no doubt as to which country Jonas Gahr Støre represented from the podium at the climate summit. Photo: Truls Alnes Antonsen / Milana Knežević/ news Emirati leaders know that the oil will not last forever, says Tilde Rosmer, professor at Zayed University in Dubai. She is Norwegian, but has lived in the Emirates for ten years and knows the country well. The leaders want to restructure the country, mainly for economic reasons, she says. – At the same time, they understand what happens if it gets even hotter and we are sitting in a desert where it is already hot, says Rosmer. Back at the climate summit, observer Natalie Jones says that Norway’s and the Emirates’ investments in renewable energy are in themselves very good things. – But if investment in wind and solar is scaled up as much as needed, but investment in fossil energy is not scaled down as much as needed, then we will not reach the Paris goals. It’s that simple, concludes Jones.
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I think Norway and the Emirates have a lot in common in oil policy – news – Klima
