Harbour authorities along Norway’s long coastline, and especially Oslo Havn in the capital, are improving facilities with the goal of moving more cargo transport from inadequate highways to the water. They contend it will ease congestion and be better for the environment.
The Oslo harbour authorities want half of all cargo transported to Oslo to arrive from the sea. “If you send a container from Rotterdam to Oslo by ship instead of on a truck, it will spare the environment from carbon emissions amounting to 21 round trips between Oslo and Trondheim,” Harbor Director Anne Sigrid Hamran told newspaper Dagsavisen recently.
Oslo’s harbor is tiny compared to major European ports such as Rotterdam and Gothenburg, and it’s sold off lots of space to commercial developers. It’s still an important destination for imports, though, and its remaining area under the Ekeberg plateau will be expanded over the next 20 years. Nearly half of Norway’s population lives within three hours of Oslo, and the market is growing.
Ports along Norway’s west and northwest coast are also urging more use of ships for cargo from timber to goods brought by container. Environmental organizations such as Bellona are applauding the harbour’s efforts to drum up more transport by sea, to help get large trucks off the roads.
newsinenglish.no staff
