Norway’s Greens Party doesn’t seem to mind that Erik Solheim, their newest high-profile member, lost his job as head of the UN’s environmental program and now works for one of Norway’s oil tycoons. They like the fact that the political veteran thinks the Greens can become Norway’s new “party of the people.” Newspaper VG reported […]
Conflict erupts over rain forest funding
August 16, 2019
Ten years of funding rain forest preservation efforts in the Amazon, as a means of battling climate change, has suddenly left Norwegian officials disappointed and subjected to ridicule by the new president of Brazil. Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing government has in practice allowed rapid deforestation, prompting Norway to follow Germany this week in withholding more rain […]
Tempers rise over Greens’ ‘socialism’
August 15, 2019
Morning radio listeners got an earfull on Thursday, when the ever-provocative deputy leader of Norway’s conservative Progress Party, Sylvi Listhaug, accused the Greens Party of furthering socialism and “nanny state” policies aimed at “tearing down” much of what Norway has built up for generations. “Utter nonsense,” retorted her counterpart from the Greens, Arild Hermstad, during […]
Oslo ‘to be emissions-free by 2030’
August 9, 2019
Norway’s municipal election campaign is underway, with incumbent politicians in Oslo promising that they’ll make the Norwegian capital emissions-free by 2030. Critics question whether that’s realistic. Oslo’s Labour Party-led government coalition that includes the Socialist Left and Greens parties invited reporters and others on a tram ride Friday, during which they announced ambitious goals. All […]
More floods and slides in the forecast
August 9, 2019
Norwegian researchers and meteorologists are once again warning of more torrential rain, floods and landslides in the years to come. Extreme weather will be common by the year 2100, they say, also in areas where landslides and flooding currently are not. “It’s just going to get worse over the whole country,” Bernt G Apeland, secretary […]
‘Food production must be changed’
August 8, 2019
Norwegians must join the rest of the world in eating less meat, and stop developing untouched natural areas, declared Norway’s government minister in charge of climate and environmental issue on Thursday. Ola Elvestuen was reacting to the UN Climate Panel’s report that calls for radical changes in how food is produced. The report stresses that […]
Glaciers melting at an alarming rate
August 2, 2019
Researchers, especially one who has studied Norway’s second-largest glacier for the past 20 years, are sounding new alarms over how glaciers are melting. “It’s only going downhill with the glaciers,” Miriam Jackson, who recently paid another visit to an important arm of the glacier Svartisen in Nordland County. Jackson, a glaciologist and researcher at Norway’s state […]
Vega shares its world heritage
July 24, 2019
A modern landmark aimed at sharing the cultural heritage of a particularly beautiful part of Norway opened this summer on the main island of Vega. The UN granted World Heritage status to the Vega Archipelago 15 years ago, but only now does the public have a place to learn more about the islands’ history and […]
Two East Barents wells come up dry
June 18, 2019
State-owned oil company Equinor is disappointed while climate activists are relieved: Norway’s Petroleum Directorate has reported that a second well drilled by Equinor and its partners in a once-promising portion of the eastern Barents Sea was “classified as dry,” and has now been “permanently plugged and abandoned.” The failure to find oil in the well drilled […]
‘Norway buys itself out of climate vow’
June 17, 2019
NEWS ANALYSIS: The timing was ironic at best: Norway’s state-owned oil company Equinor announced a new oil and gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea on Monday, just as the government was vowing to cut carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. The government’s deal with the EU, however, will allow Norway to account for some […]
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