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 […]
Blast ‘tragic’ for hydrogen vehicles
June 12, 2019
A major explosion at a hydrogen filling station west of Oslo on Monday has forced the shutdown of the few other such facilities currently to be found in Norway. That’s causing major problems for all owners of hydrogen vehicles, and for efforts to cut carbon emissions in the transport sector. “This is just tragic,” Ulf […]
Climate strikers defy the state’s snub
June 11, 2019
Norwegian school students aren’t giving up their efforts to make politicians more responsive to their climate demands, especially after they were snubbed by the Parliament late last week. They’re already planning a new, nationwide strike shortly after school starts up again, on August 30. “The government doesn’t have climate goals that are good enough, and […]
Collision spurred oil platform evacuation
June 7, 2019
More than 200 people on board Equinor’s Statfjord A oil platform in the North Sea were evacuated during the night after a supply vessel collided with the platform. The collision occurred just as Equinor is under regulatory pressure to correct repeated environmental violations at another nearby oil field. Equinor wrote in a press release Friday […]
Norway’s carbon emissions up again
June 3, 2019
Climate activists are calling it “embarrassing” but Environment Minister Ola Elvestuen wasn’t surprised when state statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway) reported Monday that Norway’s carbon emissions were 0.4 percent higher in 2018 than in 2017. Elvestuen blames less use of palm oil in fuel, along with more emissions from road transport. “We still don’t have […]
Norwegians value intact nature most
May 29, 2019
Wilderness, the silence of the great outdoors, and the sound of rushing water ranked highest in a recent overview of which nature experiences Norwegians value the most. That can explain all the strong opposition that always occurs when Norwegians fear their scenic and peaceful areas are threatened. The latest opposition this spring has flared over […]
Greens keen to reform chicken industry
May 28, 2019
Norway’s climate-friendly Greens Party wants to curb industrial production of chicken. Its youth group won broad approval at the party’s recent annual meeting for “drastic” reforms. Norway didn’t have much of a chicken industry until the mid-1990s, when it finally became possible to buy chicken breasts in grocery stores. Before that, only fresh whole chickens […]
Conflicts blow over windmill projects
May 28, 2019
The Norwegian government went to the dramatic extent on Monday of halting, at least temporarily, construction of a highly contested wind energy project on the island of Frøya. It’s just one of many where windmill opponents have resorted to public demonstrations, civil disobedience and even vandalism in their efforts to block construction of the huge […]
‘Prime Minister is not listening to us’
May 24, 2019
UPDATED: Thousands of Norwegian school students joined youth all over the world in cutting classes and demonstrating once again on Friday. Their latest school strikes against passive politicians are another effort to get their leaders to lead in the effort to cut carbon emissions, and Prime Minister Erna Solberg was their main target. The students […]
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