Norwegian Energy Policies Since WW2

Norway has been recognized as the third-largest exporter of oil and natural gas in the world. At the same time, they are known for being a major advocate for climate change mitigation. Norway has played somewhat contradictory roles in their energy policies. For one, Norway largely contributes to high-energy consuming nations that are greatly affecting global climate change. On the other hand, Norwegians take the notion of environmental sustainability very seriously as well as climate policies.

Since the late 1960s, Norway has had sovereign rights over the North Sea. Upon the discovery of a massive oil and natural gas reserve under the North Sea, Norway has become the third largest oil exporter in the world, producing approximately 3 million barrels of oil per day. This level of production has a huge impact on the Norwegian economy, since it is currently the largest economic sector in the nation.

Norway's current policy on its oil and gas exportation is primarily transparency. They have made strong improvements to the overall security of energy trade throughout the world by providing a reliable and predictable framework for production and exploration. Norway also provides all relevant information appertaining to its energy revenue management and resources.

Because of the rising demand in fossil fuels, Norway's energy policies support an increase in the production and recovery of these fuels. Simultaneously, Norway has integrated a number of environmental considerations into their efforts of production and recovery. Thus, Norway is continually funding innovative approaches to safely recover these environmentally hazardous compounds.

Domestically, Norway generates its own electricity primarily from hydroelectric plants. Out of all the electricity produced in Norway, about 98 percent comes from underwater turbines that utilize tidal currents. The other two percent is generated by wind and thermal powered generators.

Pertaining to climate policies, Norway aspires to reduce their 1990 carbon emissions by 30 percent in 2020. Their main goal is to become completely carbon-neutral by 2050, which would be an exemplar for many nations to follow. Thankfully, with the high amount of revenue that Norway receives from their fossil fuel exports, they are investing in a number of green solutions that may benefit the rest of the world.

With such an environmentally conscious energy policy, it is hard to see how Norway is looking to cut their carbon emission by 30 percent when they already are essentially carbon-free. The only foreseeable cuts that could be made would be in their oil and gas manufacturing, production and transportation. If Norway is trying to expand it's levels of production, then they will certainly have a hard time meeting their goal.

On the other hand, if Norway continues to invest in more secure means of oil and gas recovery and production, then they may be able to tremendously cut carbon emissions to attain their current goal of a 30 percent reduction. If they do succeed in engineering safer means of recovery and production, the world will have a lot to learn from Norway in terms of their environmentally conscientious methods.