FULL THROTTLE: Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre visited the Sleipner A platform in 2022 – after the damage to the Nord Stream pipelines. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB
200 Norwegian scientists give the prime minister a clear message: Take climate leadership – and set an end date for the extraction of oil and gas. Jonas Gahr Støre does not think an end date is any solution.
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200 Norwegian scientists send a letter to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, asking for climate leadership and an end date for oil and gas extraction. Initiative taker Karen O’Brien and research colleagues urge Støre to show courage and lead the green shift globally. Støre believes an end date is not the solution and would rather gradually switch to renewable energy sources. The climate summit in Dubai starts on 30 November, giving Norway a chance to show leadership and support the phasing out of fossil energy. Researchers want to invest in Norway’s expertise and experience to ensure a sustainable future and green workplaces. Show more
In an unusual letter from highly motivated Norwegian researchers, they invite the head of government to a dialogue about a real green transition.
Initiator and climate scientist Karen O’Brien acknowledges together with the signatories that the green transition is difficult. But that they are ready to support Støre in his work.
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Scientists
The researchers behind the letter come from more than 34 different educational and research institutions across the country. These include the universities of Oslo, Bergen, Tromsø, Stavanger, NTNU, Fridtjof Nansen’s Institute, NMBU (Ås), CICERO, Peace Research Institute PRIO, Bjerknessenteret, Havforskningsinstituttet , Norwegian Polar Institute and Meteorological Institute. On the list are some of Norway’s most renowned researchers, such as Eystein Jansen, Karen O’Brien, Grete Hovelsrud, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Siri Eriksen, Helge Drange, Vigdis Vandvik, Frode Stordal, Kikki Kleiven and Cecilie Mauritzen . view more
However, the researchers are not delivering a perfumed love letter to the Prime Minister’s office. Initiator Karen O’Brien says:
– This is a letter from scientists, many of whom work daily with the climate. Norway has a big responsibility here. Each individual researcher has not only signed, but put into words their motivation to ask the government to set an end date for oil and gas extraction, says Professor Karen O’Brien to VG.
TOOK THE INITIATIVE: Researcher and professor Karen O’Brien took the initiative for the climate letter from 200 scientists to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Photo: Private
She is one of Norway’s most renowned climate scientists – and has been awarded high prices for their contributions to explaining the consequences of climate change.
In the letter to the Prime Minister, O’Brien and the over 200 researchers write that Norway has a unique opportunity to show enough courage to act and lead the green shift that the world must go through.
They highlight this year’s climate summit in Dubai which starts on 30 November – as an opportunity for Jonas Gahr Støre.
EXTREME WEATHER IN SUMMER: The picture shows, among other things, flooding in Aurdal in Valdres as a result of the extreme weather Hans in early August. Photo: Kim Atle Kleven / The Armed Forces
There they urge the Prime Minister to show global climate leadership, and support the work for a phasing out of fossil energy with an end date for Norwegian oil and gas production.
Former climate minister – now foreign minister Espen Barth-Eide, together with Singapore’s climate and environment minister Grace Fu, will try to build a bridge between all the world’s countries on how to increase efforts and keep the 1.5 degree target alive.
– We who sign this letter are researchers who are personally engaged in the climate issue, not because of political conviction, but because of our scientific point of view, the letter states.
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Some quotes from the researchers
– I keep quoting you, Prime Minister, that climate is a framework around everything. Now it just has to mean that we create exactly the jobs that cut the most emissions. (Andreas Ytterstad, Professor, Oslo Met.) – I am signing because an oil-producing country like Norway needs courageous political leadership and clear social scientists to manage the transition. (David Jordhus-Lier, Professor, University of Oslo)– Sustainability beyond growth fetishism will be necessary for survival. (Sustainability beyond growth fetishism will be necessary for survival.) (Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Professor, University of Oslo.) – Stopping the search for new deposits of oil/gas will be a powerful signal that Norway is taking the climate crisis seriously. (Nils Aarsæther, Professor Emeritus, UiT Norwegian Arctic University.)– Our common future depends on a large-scale restructuring, and that requires us to take responsibility and leadership. Only through action do we create hope. (Wenche Aas, Senior researcher, NILU.)Show more
They also write that by investing Norway’s expertise and experience in building a renewable future – we will be able to deliver on both “our global responsibility” and secure tomorrow’s green jobs at home.
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Climate scientist and social geographer O’Brien found inspiration in a similar initiative from Great Britain where 700 scientists wrote letters to the Prime Minister about the lack of climate leadership.
– What is your own most important motivation for signing the letter?
– Doing something, not just talking. It is so important that more people become more involved in the climate issue. When I started as a researcher, I did not expect so many consequences from climate change. Researchers, people, more have to get out of their comfort zone. We have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren for that, insists the professor.
– When is your end date for when Norway should stop extracting oil and gas?
– We have no time to lose. We have to start now, and we have more than enough knowledge and motivation to create the alternatives today, replies O’Brien.
READS AND ANSWERS: Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) takes the letter from the researchers seriously – and writes that he shares many of their objectives. Photo: Helge Mikalsen / VG
Støre: No end date
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre writes in an e-mail to VG that he shares many of the researchers’ goals.
But he will not give in to the demand for an end date for the extraction of oil and gas.
– We know that the demand side for oil and gas will fall, and that means that the phasing out will take place gradually. I do not believe that an end date will give Europe the energy the countries need, or that we will be able to utilize the technological expertise in the energy industry, writes Støre.
However, he promises to “stand by developing energy systems without greenhouse gas emissions.”
– We must move away from using fossil energy without carbon capture and storage, to using more renewable energy. We must work for energy efficiency and a sharp increase in renewable energy, writes the Prime Minister.
SLEIPNER A: The productive Sleipner A platform in the North Sea on a good weather day in May. Photo: Bjørn Haugan / VG
Exploration in old fields
He adds that Norway will take the lead in these negotiations – as well as in the work to reduce emissions from shipping and tropical rainforests.
Støre reminds that Norway is now concentrating exploration on old fields.
– We want to develop, not dismantle the Norwegian continental shelf – where we cut emissions and develop the technology for capturing and storing CO2. Norway is now focusing mostly on exploration around existing oil and gas platforms, not on opening completely new fields. Analyzes from the International Energy Agency (IEA) say that investments are still needed in existing oil and gas fields, writes Jonas Gahr Støre in his response to the researchers.
– At the climate summit in Dubai, we will do our part to ensure that the countries of the world can achieve the goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees, he assures.
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Brevet
Dear Prime Minister
On the occasion of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, we, as members of the scientific community, ask you to restore Norway’s climate leadership. This can only be achieved if you commit, in a similar way to our neighboring country Denmark, to an end date for the extraction of oil and gas. A first step on that path is now to end new extraction of oil and gas in Norway, as well as stopping Equinor’s investments in new oil and gas projects abroad.
Collectively, we care deeply about equality and integrity. Having integrity requires that we do what we say, rooted in values that are central to Norway and to the government you lead. At the summit for climate ambitions in September, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made a clear call to world leaders to increase their ambitions and come up with credible transition plans for energy, which include commitments to end new coal, oil and gas at the summit. Norway became refused a place on the podiuma clear message that Norway is not seen as a credible climate actor as long as we continue to look for more oil and gas.
Research shows that a green transition starts with the ability to imagine an alternative, and then initiate the change processes. Norway has a unique opportunity to show that we are brave enough to act and to lead the green shift that the world is going through. By investing our resources, expertise and experience in building a renewable future, we will not only deliver on our global responsibility, but also secure tomorrow’s green jobs here at home. Studies of the economic effects of stopping new oil and gas fields shows that the long-term consequences for the Norwegian economy will be modest. Towards 2050, GDP will be 0.5 per cent less than the reference path.
The message from the world’s scientists and the UN Secretary-General is clear: Norway cannot call itself a climate leader as long as we allow new oil and gas extraction. We can no longer avoid dangerous climate change, but the faster we act, the smaller the consequences. The climate crisis is the biggest challenge of our time, but also a unique opportunity for Norway to show climate leadership.
Norway must follow the example of countries such as France, Denmark, Sweden, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Ireland in their work to phase out the production of oil and gas. Norway has the economy and know-how to take a further step, and lead the transition to renewable energy, and secure the jobs of the future by supporting green industry. Where Norway takes the lead, other countries will follow.
This summer we have seen a foretaste of how the climate crisis will lead to more frequent and stronger extreme weather, with extreme weather Hans here at home, catastrophic forest fires in Greece and record temperatures in large parts of southern Europe. The climate crisis is already here and is hitting climate-vulnerable countries and people the hardest, but climate effects also have a major impact on Norway.
As prime minister, you have the opportunity to make Norway a leading example of how we can turn a fossil fuel-dependent economy into a beacon for green transformation in practice. This year’s climate summit in Dubai is an opportunity for you to show global climate leadership, and support the work to phase out fossil energy by setting an end date for Norwegian oil and gas production.
We who sign this letter are scientists who are personally engaged in the climate issue, not because of political conviction, but because of our scientific point of view. We recognize that this is difficult, and as researchers – and people – we are ready to support you in leading a real green transition.
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Published: 16.11.23 at 08:55
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2023-11-16 07:55:17
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