18. mars 2023 07:00 – Updated 18 March 2023 07:00
The climate crisis is so serious that nature sometimes has to give way to power development, say central SV members. But Deputy Chairman Torgeir Knag County Council does not want to give the climate the trump card.
– Our goal is of course that the conversion to renewable energy should go as far as possible outside nature, but sometimes it may be necessary to put climate considerations first, says Sunnøve Snye, leader of Socialist Youth, to NTB.
The heated debate about Norway having to sacrifice nature to make room for wind turbines and other power development will take place at SV’s national meeting on Saturday. It happens when the party has to consider a new program of principles.
“Increased greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biological diversity are two major existential threats that must be solved together. It is a goal that the conversion to renewable energy should not affect natural diversity”, says the text, which the entire national board has stood behind.
But Snyen and eight other national board members will be even clearer.
– Priority for the climate
“Yet the measures they require may conflict. These conflicts must be assessed on a case-by-case basis, but as greenhouse gas emissions are also a leading cause of the loss of biological diversity, it may in some cases be necessary to give priority to climate considerations,” the minority’s proposal states.
The climate crisis is an existential threat to both people and nature, Snyen points out. It is also a threat to biological diversity.
– Two degrees of global warming will, for example, cause all the world’s coral reefs to disappear, says the SU leader.
In order to free us from dependence on fossil energy, it is therefore necessary to develop more renewable energy by 2030. Therefore, she believes that the climate issue can trump considerations of nature.
SV’s compass
SV’s deputy leader Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes has led the work to chisel out a new program of principles for the party. He describes it as an ideological compass for the party.
– It must provide guidance for the day-to-day policy. It is not a recipe or a conclusion, but a direction, he explains to NTB.
But when it comes to the trade-off between climate measures and nature conservation, Fylkesnes does not want the national meeting to decide the compass course.
– I think it is important not to have such a clear direction, because these are very complex matters. If climate was most important, more important than nature considerations, then we would end up supporting projects that we do not currently do, says Fylkesnes to NTB
This applies, for example, to wind power on land that can affect either agricultural resources or grazing resources, industries that support Sami culture, he points out.
– So I think that we have to live with the fact that this is a difficult balance that must be taken on a case-by-case basis, he concludes.
The proposal for the principle program is debated on Saturday and voted on on Sunday. In the proposal, SV’s NATO position has been removed. This is dealt with instead in a separate security policy statement to be adopted on Saturday.
