Norway adopts 40% target

URL: http://www.signon.org.nz/blog/norway-adopts-40-target

Norway adopts 40% target
Blog Norway adopts 40% target has been updated.

Norway adopts 40% target

Submitted by Geoff Keey on Fri, 09/10/2009 - 08:41

Today I witnessed what could prove to be an historic moment. At the negotiations in Bangkok this afternoon, Norway announced that it's the first country outside of the European Union to adopt a target of 40% below 1990 levels by 2020. The announcement received a loud and sustained applause from delegates and observers, in complete contrast to the silence that met New Zealand’s target.

So why did they do it? Well, as an interview with Norway’s chief negotiator reveals, Norway sees itself as having a strong history when it comes to international environmental issues and they wanted to encourage progress in the negotiations.

Now Norway isn’t perfect, in fact Greenpeace is campaigning against Norway’s plans to exploit tar sands in Canada, and it is a major exporter of fossil fuels. But what is clear from this announcement isdespite Norway’s challenges, they’re prepared to front up and adopt the kind of target that science shows is needed to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.

Is their target conditional? Yes. They’ve said it’s conditional on the target contributing to the achievement of a comprehensive agreement in Copenhagen. That’s about the most positively worded condition I’ve seen to date. It’s also worth nothing that their earlier target was an unconditional 30% target, so that even if a comprehensive deal isn’t reached, they’ll still cut by 30%.

I can’t help but compare Norway’s stance with that of our own Government in these negotiations. We’ve got a weak target with selfish demands and our main area of ‘leadership’ is an agricultural research programme where we seem to be encouraging other countries to fund our research priorities.

John Key doesn’t seem to be one to avoid a challenge and I strongly urge him to take a close look at the challenge presented by his Norwegian counterpart and rises to it.

ENDS

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