170 world leaders have gathered in Dubai and will negotiate for two weeks on how to deal with the climate crisis. Today and yesterday, state leaders have given presentations on how they will act to resolve the crisis. From the podium in Dubai, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said on Saturday morning that Norway gave NOK 270 million to a loss and damage fund for poor countries, which was announced during the opening of the conference on Thursday. This is more than the 17.5 million dollars the USA gave to the fund, but less than Germany and the United Arab Emirates, which gave 100 million dollars each. The money in the fund will go to help poor countries that experience damage as a result of climate change. Dagfinn Høybråten, secretary general of the Church’s Aid, calls it a saying that Norway gives such a sum. At the same time, the aid organization expects that this money will not be taken from other aid posts. – It is an obvious part of our fair climate responsibility, and the money will benefit those who are hardest hit by the climate crisis. – In a world where humanitarian needs are queuing up, it is precarious that Norway respects our commitment that climate finance does not tie into other aid. We must manage to do both, says Høybråten. Elise Åsnes, head of the environmental and development organization Spire, expects Norway to contribute more. – This is nowhere near Norway’s just and historical responsibility. We expect more and that these are new funds. They cannot be taken from an already far too small aid budget for a world in crisis, says Åsnes. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre speaks at the Climate Summit in Dubai 2023 – Piss in the sea MDG leader Arild Hermstad believes that a country as rich as Norway should give more money to the fund. – Norway has been and is a major contributor to emissions. Nevertheless, the government only decided to give a quarter of the amount that the Arab Emirates gave to the loss and damage fund. There is not much to brag about when we know what financial muscles Norway has, says the MDG leader. Inga Fritzen Buan, senior adviser at the WWF World Wide Fund for Nature, says it is very good that Norway gave NOK 270 million to the climate fund for poor countries. She also praises the government’s commitment to triple funding for climate measures by 2026. (Over 110 countries have committed to triple funding by 2030 at the summit). – Rich countries like ours have a special responsibility. We are to blame for the spill, we have to pay, says Buan. Earlier this week, the government announced that Norway gave NOK 1.1 billion to Indonesia to save the rainforest. Frode Pleym, head of Greenpeace Norway, believes that the money Norway gives to the climate fund for poor countries and Indonesia are important measures, but points out that Norway’s petroleum revenues last year were calculated to be NOK 1,457 billion, which is higher than Statistics Norway has measured for. – We have a rough tendency to continue to contribute to climate change. The money for the climate fund and rainforest is, by comparison, “a piss in the sea”, he says. – Very upset In his speech today, Jonas Gahr Støre said that Norway is joining the Clean Energy Transition Partnership. This is a group of countries that say they will not finance fossil energy abroad. He also highlighted carbon capture and storage (CCS) as “a necessary tool” and that CO2 storage can be carried out “safely and permanently”. Spire manager Elise Åsnes says she is “very upset” that Norway is again highlighting CCS at the UN. – For a long time, Norway has actively used CCS as an argument for continuing with the oil age. Taking the uncertainty around CCS into account, this is very serious, says Elise Åsnes. – Today, Norway pursues a climate policy where we buy our way out of the climate crisis with quotas while we wait for CCS to perhaps save us from the crisis. Norway must pursue a climate policy of solidarity, and implement real emission cuts today. The creation of a fund for loss and damage to poor countries was decided at the climate summit in Egypt last year. The background for the fund is that it is the rich countries that have been responsible for most of the climate emissions. At the same time, it is in poor countries that global warming is most noticeable. At the climate conference today, it was also announced that Norway is giving NOK 200 million to a program that develops more advanced clean cooking areas in Africa. An own fund has also been set up which will go towards investments in climate measures before 2030.
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Reactions to Norway’s contribution to the new climate fund at the climate summit in Dubai – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
