– Fossil energy suffocates humanity – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
The brand new interim report from the UN Climate Panel states that climate change is true people and that next year will now be crucial for our success.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres took a hard line against coal production and other fossil energy when he presented the report today.
– The facts are undeniable. This absence of leadership is criminal, he says.
Guterres pointed the finger directly at oil nations such as Norway.
– As an oil and gas giant, you can not claim to be green while your plans and projects undermine the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, and ignore the big cuts that must happen this decade, says António Guterres.
– The OECD countries must phase out by 2030 and all others by 2040, says Guterres.
– Impossible for Norway to sneak away now
The report must have drastic and immediate consequences for Norwegian oil policy, says Gina Gylver, leader of Nature and Youth.
– Now, for the first time, the Secretary General clearly states that all production of coal, oil and gas must be stopped by 2040, Gylver says.
Minister of Climate and Environment Espen Barth Eide (Labor Party) has read the report and says it will hit us all.
– Also us in Norway. It will change how we cook, live and produce and travel. And we have to now think about climate adaptation in everything we do, he says to NRK.
Gylver says that Norway must stop all oil exploration with a controlled transition from both oil and gas production to renewable.
– When the first interim report came this summer, Guterres was clear that the world had to stop looking for new oil and gas. Then Støre replied that Guterres did not aim at Norway, and that it was other countries that had to put the oil exploration first.
– Today it is impossible to sneak away or come up with explanations. Norway must start the transition away from oil and gas today, says Gylver.
Left-wing leader Guri Melby agrees.
– If this report is not a nail in the coffin to look for more oil and gas, I do not know exactly what should be. Norway should take the lead and stop exploration activity for more oil and for more gas, says Melby.
– Loses the opportunity for a livable future
Half the world is “very vulnerable” to climate change, according to the recent report.
Between 3.3 and 3.6 billion people live in the area, which is “very vulnerable” to climate change.
This autumn, the climate panel stated that there is no longer any doubt that humans are changing the climate, in a report that was referred to as “code red for the planet”.
The report presented by the climate panel today addresses the consequences of climate change for people and nature. It’s gloomy reading.
– If the global effort is further delayed, we will lose the small opportunity we still have to secure a viable future for all of us, says Hans-Otto Pörtner, who has led the work on the new report.
– It is a short time until 2030
The World Wide Fund for Nature says the report shows that the consequences of climate change are worse than previously thought, and dangerous levels are closer than previously calculated by researchers.
– It is difficult to stop the warming of 1.5 degrees, and the report shows that each time degree means a big difference for people and nature. This is what Karoline Andaur, Secretary General of the WWF World Wide Fund for Nature, says.
It is hardly possible to get a more serious report in the lap, says Conservative Mathilde Tybring-Gjedde about the UN climate report.
– The alarm has gone off! Man-made climate change puts our livelihoods at risk, she says.
– It is now urgent to get the government’s new climate plan with new climate measures on the table. It is a short time until 2030. People and companies that are to implement large emission cuts must know what climate policy they must comply with.
– I am embarrassed
Ulrikke Torgersen in Grønn Ungdom says that she is embarrassed about Norway.
– I would say that I speak on behalf of a generation of young people who are afraid of the future say that politicians will stop procrastinating.
– I am embarrassed that Norway, as one of the richest countries in the world, is unable to show leadership in the face of the biggest challenge of our time, says Torgersen.
It is clear how bad time we have now, says Lars Haltbrekken in SV.
– The room for maneuver is small, it is now that we must begin the work towards reaching a zero-emission society, which can also save nature and people from catastrophic changes, he says.
The Red Party agrees that it is urgent.
– The seriousness confirms time and time again. Now the government must prove that they actually want to increase Norway’s ambitions in climate policy, until now there has been most words and little handling, says Bendik Hugstyr Woie in Rødt.
– Climate policy is also peace policy
The report is a “crushing verdict” on where one is headed, because politicians with power all over the world do not prioritize the climate crisis highly enough, according to the Green Party.
Climate policy is also peace policy, according to MDG party leader Une Bastholm.
– Both directly and indirectly. The brutal effects of climate change will increase tensions between countries in the world, affect food production and infrastructure and send people into flux, says Bastholm.
She says that the invasion of Ukraine is a reminder of how energy policy, climate policy and important geopolitical considerations will interact in the future.
– We have to take this seriously. Putin and several other dictatorships control large oil and gas resources, giving them political power and money. That Europe and the world become less dependent on this fossil energy is in itself important, she says.