It was when presenter Fredrik Solvang wanted to talk about Ola Borten Moe’s oil company, Okea, that the former minister grimaced and dismissed Solvang. Do you still own shares in the oil industry?, asked Solvang – I do, or not industry, but in Okea, replied Borten Moe. Which is your own company?, clarified Solvang – There I have a very small shareholding, but I helped start it. It is a company today that has around 430 employees, and that pays almost three to four billion in taxes every quarter. So I don’t bother to stand and take a shit about that, replied a clearly irritated Borten Moe. Because it wasn’t Okea or the oil industry they were going to talk about, it was the possibility or impossibility of reaching the climate targets the government has set that was the topic. And Borten Moe has somewhat clear opinions: – If it takes 50 or 100 years to reach the climate goals, then it will. The climate targets crush values and wealth in Norway and the West, rather send the money to Africa and India, then we will get climate cuts, says Ola Borten Moe to news. Borten Moe stood for this policy when he was in government until last summer. – Of course I was within that policy, but I raised my hand and protested a few times, he continues today. They did not fully agree on the solutions, Climate and Environment Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen and Ola Borten Moe when they met at Fredrik Solvang’s. Photo: Amanda Iversen Orlich / news Tough targets The starting point for Borten Moe’s clear appeal to the government is that the government has set itself a separate climate target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 per cent compared to 1990. This must happen by 2030. That is, in six years. When we write February 2024, the conclusion is that we have cut 4.6 per cent. Miles away from the goal. So to reach the target, the government will have to cut around 7.3 per cent every single year. The government thus has two climate targets, both of which state that Norway must cut 55 per cent. One is through the UN where Norway can use quotas. The second is called the “Transformation target” in the Hurdal platform. These goals are much more ambitious than the goals Norway has submitted to the UN. Because if Norway fails to achieve the UN targets together with the EU, they open the way for you to buy quotas from other countries. The government’s own goals do not. – The climate targets are completely unrealistic, says Borten Moe, and substantiates with a recent example. – We cannot adopt technology that does not exist, just look at the electric buses in Oslo, now the bus does not run when it is cold. The green shift is madness put into a system, he says of his own government. – We have no good plans. At best, we have some wind power in southern parts of the North Sea, which I hope we will get. We will perhaps get some things done in terms of upgrading and enough new hydropower and maybe wind turbines will appear on land. But nothing close to what is required. Ola Borten Moe meets Climate and Environment Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen in the Debate tonight. Photo: Amanda Iversen Orlich / news Norway’s climate goals Norway has reported to the UN that we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% compared to 1990 levels. As of today, Norway has cut 4.6% compared to 1990. As of today, Norway emits 48.9 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. By 2030, the figure should be 23.1 million tonnes of CO2. Reacts Climate and Environment Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen believes Borten Moe’s pessimism is a dead end, but that Borten Moe has a point. – I agree with Borten Moe that climate policy has had a problem for many years. It is that climate policy in Norway has been a lot about what goals we should set, and then it has been too little about what measures we should implement to achieve those goals in practice, says Bjelland Eriksen. – We have come a long way. We still have to step it up further in the years ahead, but that it is possible to make it happen and that we have the measures we need to ensure that we have a good industry and good welfare, says Bjelland Eriksen, who points to some concrete points. – In order to implement the 2030 goals, there is technology that exists, and which we can put into use quite a lot already today. It is about direct electrification, it is about replacing cars and it is about replacing excavators. – There is no problem with electrification, at least not passenger cars now. Buses are a problem because the batteries are too small, or the battery technology is too bad, replies Borten Moe, who does not think we will reach the 2030 targets, and who emphasizes that the cuts must take place outside Norway’s borders. – I don’t want to take it upon myself that we can’t achieve the goals, but I think we have to do it globally, and it doesn’t matter what we do in Norway. – Finally, I would like to say that it is not long until the rest of the world will make the tough emission cuts that we have to start with here at home in Norway as well, so we don’t really have much to gain by waiting, replies Bjelland Eriksen. Until this summer, Ola Borten Moe was minister for research and higher education and deputy leader of the Center Party, but resigned from both roles and announced that he would not stand for re-election to the Storting either, after trading shares as a minister. The Climate Minister rejects Borten Moe’s claim that Norway is not meeting its climate targets.
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– The green shift is madness put into a system – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
