Climate and environment, Andreas Bjelland Eriksen

Due to an active oil policy, Norway is banned from the climate forum High Ambition Coalition, which we helped start in 2015, reports NRK.

Climate and Environment Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen (Ap) confirms to NRK that Norway no longer participates in the meetings, but that we can still support declarations from there.

– At a meeting with the Marshall Islands in March, we were told that we will no longer be invited. The reason given was that Norway is still a significant oil and gas producer, and that we have not agreed to declarations from the coalition since 2021, says Eriksen.

The Church’s emergency aid calls the situation embarrassing, while Natur og ungdom believes it shows that no one buys what they call Norway’s climate bluff anymore.

– The world sees that Norway does not have a credible and ambitious plan for the transition we must go through. Norway must put in place a phasing-out plan for the oil industry, as the climate committee 2050 points out, says the organisation’s leader Gytis Blaževičius to NTB.

Norway helped start the coalition in 2015 together with the EU and the Marshall Islands. It happened in the run-up to the Paris Agreement.

Eriksen defends Norway’s policy and believes it takes place in close cooperation with the EU and our neighboring countries.

– We deliver to the European energy system, which is undergoing major restructuring, which is in line with what we are trying to do in climate policy as well. Which is about cutting emissions and creating new jobs, he says.

(© NTB)