In the midst of the fight against global warming, Norway has emerged as one of the European countries with the greatest environmental commitment despite the significant weight of its oil industry, the second in Europe, after Russia, and twelfth worldwide.
Visiting the city of Stavanger, on the southwest coast of the country, the contradiction that the country is experiencing is manifested in all its splendor. The region is home to the headquarters of the large Norwegian oil company, Equinor –the former Statoil, privatized by the government in 2001–, as well as subsidiaries of reference groups such as Repsol, Shell or Total. From this city, the extractions that take place in the depths of the country's seas are controlled, an activity that began in the early seventies after the first discoveries of the American multinational Phillips Petroleum. More than 50 years later, the millions of liters of oil and tons of m3 of gas that they extract daily are consumed locally but, above all, are exported to the rest of Europe and China. A business that represents a third of the country's GDP (see graph) and that nourishes its powerful sovereign fund, the largest in the world, with 1,700 million euros under management, the equivalent of 1.4% of the shares on the world market .
However, walking through the center of Stavanger – the fourth largest city in the country, with 130,000 inhabitants, after Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim – the impact of the industry is hardly noticeable. On the other hand, the advances in the electrification of means of transport are visible, the spearhead of the Norwegian commitment to the energy transition. The first fully electrified public ferry stands out, as well as the municipal bus network, but above all, the private car park.
On the roads, Tesla brand cars abound – a reason that will lead tycoon Elon Musk to visit the city next fall – and other cars from brands such as BMW, Volkswagen, Skoda, Toyota or Neo. Its high presence in the country is the result of a resolution of the Parliament of the year 2017 that forces the sale of new fossil fuel cars to cease from 2025. This means that in three years only first-hand cars (also vans) will be marketed. light and urban buses) that are electric or that work with a hydrogen battery.
This regulation has caused the transition to accelerate at great speed and has placed Norway as the European country with the highest percentage of electric vehicles per capita -81 per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to 20 in Sweden or 8 in Germany, according to data of Statista. In fact, last year 65% of the cars sold were already plug-in –compared to 4% in Spain– and 22% were hybrid technology. “The public administration makes it very easy for us. Electric vehicles are exempt from paying taxes, including VAT, and drivers can take advantage of discounts on toll prices, as well as free travel on ferries and car parks in the city center. We even have permission to circulate in the taxi and bus lane ”, comments Fredrik Hegland, while he drives a Tesla that he has acquired with the help of public incentives. In Norway, he adds, the car is a symbol of social status, as well as an ideal means of transportation in a country where climatic and geographical conditions are adverse. Added to the rains and low temperatures is the complex orography of the coast, cut out by thousands of islets that make circulation difficult. This explains the low use of public transport – 11% in the country as a whole and 7% in the Stavanger region, according to data from the public transport company Kolumbus – compared to 30% in Spain. The private vehicle is, therefore, the heart of Norwegian mobility and the strong public commitment to electrify it would not be possible –paradoxically– without the benefits of oil. With the global energy crisis, the income received by the State from this industry has skyrocketed (see graph).
Beyond this strong commitment to the electrification of transport –responsible for more than 15% of emissions–, Norway has set ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gases, in line with or even above the mandate of the Paris agreements and the agenda for sustainable development of the UN. The country does not belong to the EU (it has rejected it in two referendums, in 1972 and 1994), although it has promised to collaborate with the environmental cause.
By 2030, Norway has set itself the goal of reducing greenhouse gases by up to 55%, above the 40% forecast by the UN and the EU. Although the reality is that it will only reduce 24%, according to a forecast prepared for the year 2021 by the Norsk Industri industry federation. And, in 2050, instead of reducing them by 100%, it will only reach 79%. The intention is good but "the objectives are difficult to achieve because policies must target industries that have difficulty taking on these challenges, such as oil and gas, heavy transport or agriculture," the report says. As the graph shows, the energy sector and manufacturing, engines of the country's economy, are responsible for most of the gas emissions.
In this transition process, the consumption of renewable resources will be key. Norway, despite being an oil power, has been ahead for years because it is also a benchmark in hydroelectric power production. For more than a century it has been exploiting its aquatic resources and exporting them to neighboring countries. Today it is the main producer in Europe and the sixth in the world. This means that 66% of the total energy consumed by the country comes from this source of electrical energy, according to data for the year 2021 prepared by BP and collected by Our World in Data. Meanwhile, oil accounts for 18% of national consumption and gas represents 7% (coal is residual). The data also shows that in the last three years the consumption of wind energy has burst, which already accounts for 5% of the total. According to Norsk Industri, the country is "well positioned" in the production of this energy source, on land and especially offshore. In fact, this year, the oil company Equinor has installed the largest wind platform in the world in the North Sea. The interest in this source of energy is growing not only because the environmental footprint is much smaller compared to that of oil and hydroelectric plants (which erode rivers and deforest forests) but also because of the end of gas reserves and Petroleum. This is the real underlying debate facing Norway. Oil represents 30% of GDP and produces more than 200,000 quality jobs in a small country, which has a workforce of 2.9 million people (out of a total of 5.4 million inhabitants).
However, official statistics show that the danger is far from coming. In the last 50 years, Norway has only sold half of its resources. You still have the other half. But what will happen next? And the global goals to fight global warming? Hence the pressure from the Government to move towards wind energy and the electrification of transport. The commitment, or remorse, is growing. In recent years, Parliament has been pressuring the financial authorities so that the sovereign fund – created in the 1990s to allocate oil profits to pensions and exploit them outside of the successive crises in the industry – stop investing in the stock market in companies that contribute to global warming.
Social awareness is growing. Despite the rebound that oil companies are experiencing due to the global energy crisis, many managers in the sector have turned their careers around to contribute to the environmental cause. “In the Stavanger region, something is changing. We cannot quantify this phenomenon, but since the 2014 crisis there are significant cases of former professionals in the sector who in recent years have created start-ups with this purpose”, comments Bjarne Uldal, director of innovation for the Nordic Edge cluster, founded in the city. in 2015. "There is a great opportunity to transfer technology from the oil industry to many fields of innovation," says Sigmund Kyvik, who was a director of Equinor for 17 years and in 2016 decided to found the start-up Siglar Carbon , specialized in controlling the emissions of large maritime freight.
Like so many others, Kyvik is convinced that another economy in Norway is possible, that the country is heading towards the beginning of the end of dependence on oil.
