2021-09-13 16:35News

13 September 2021

Mundus Nordic Green News

Norwegian election race dominated by the future of oil

The poll booths in Norway’s election have been closed, and the voters have had their say on the country’s environmental efforts regarding the climate and oil agenda. The results should soon be known. After eight years in the parliament, the Conservative party (Høyre) under Erna Solberg is facing a change of government according to opinion polls (SVT). For most of the parties, the discussion revolves around the long-term transition from the oil industry.

The Greens remain firm with their claims of only supporting a coalition that commits to an immediate stop of all fossil fuel exploration. However, Jonas Gahr Støre’s (Labour party) preferred centre-left coalition including the Labour party, Centre party and the Socialist party is predicted to fall short of a majority. If this were to occur, it is imperative for the new government to include one of the smaller parties, with the Greens or the Red party needing to exceed the election threshold of 4% if they are to take a place in the new parliament. This is complicating the oil debate, as Støre states that closing down the oil industry in adherence to the Red and Greens want is not a feasible solution (Financial Times). 

Swedish Moderates launch new climate policy

Inspired by their political counterparts in Germany, CDU and CSU, Sweden’s Moderates have presented a climate agenda with nine proposals that they would implement if they were to form government next year. The proposals see a new role for nuclear power in Sweden, as well as sustainable forestry and other supporting technology that advances the green transition. Further, the Moderates propose a framework for climate investments to decrease emissions globally, as well as pursuing a global cost on carbon emissions by pressuring China. Nationally, one of the tangible proposals regards sustainable transportation where expansions of charging networks are needed to support electric vehicles. The Moderates believe their proposals will appeal to a broad segment of voters, and say that they want Sweden to be world leader in green growth. In their mind they have the ambition of becoming Sweden’s “green right”. [Editor The suggestions may struggle to be actionable, as nuclear power has been found by many countries to be prohibitively expensive, and it has political challenges. Meanwhile, sustainable forestry may run straight into the EUs taxonomy regulations] ( Dagens Nyheter)

An avalanche of applications for permits for offshore wind in Sweden

Requests for building offshore wind projects are seeing an explosive increase in applications. Costs of investments are forecast to be SEK 400 billion, and, if all the installations were to be built, Sweden would end up with a net surplus of electricity. However, these come with a set of challenges. Far from all of the plans are projected to be approved due to several reasons such as companies being in their infancy, the military having the authority to stop the building plans as well as the investment costs which are significantly higher than the cost of onshore projects.

According to Daniel Gustafsson, from Svenska kraftnät (the grid operator), the hike in applications relates to the government's willingness to subsidise the connection of cables for offshore wind farms. Svenska Kraftnät has an investment budget of up to 100 billion SEK for energy transfer across the country in the coming ten years. As of now, not all applications are granted, and the government will have to decide on which projects to subsidise (SvD). 

Collaboration agreement signed by RWE, NTE and Havfram focusing on offshore wind in Norway

The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has opened two areas for offshore renewables (Utsira Nord and Sørlige Nordsjø II). Germany’s RWE, and Norway’s NTE and Havfram have signed a cooperation agreement to participate in the Norwegian government's tender process for offshore wind power, which will start later this year. Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of Offshore Wind RWE Renewable, says Utsira Nord, with the potential to generate 1.5 GW of floating offshore capacity is an excellent opportunity to develop a floating offshore wind park together with RWEs two Norwegian partners. (Kontrast). 


About Nordic Green News

The Nordic countries are some of the most dynamic and successful economies in the world. They are also leaders in sustainability, from renewable energy, biofuels, carbon capture and storage and the hydrogen economy, circular economy business models and battery development, the Nordics are pioneers in policy design, technology development and consumer uptake. Mundus Nordic Green News is covering this transition for the international community. Every day we clip the stories of most relevance to international businesspeople and policy experts from the flow of news. Mundus Nordic Green Indices summarise the meta-data from our daily coverage to enable easy tracking of trends. We supplement these with our own opinion pieces and commentary.