With 99.7% of the votes counted, Jonas Gahr Støre from the Labour Party becomes Norway’s next Prime Minister, replacing Erna Solberg’s Conservative party with no dependency on the Red or Green Parties. Although Støre claims that he will be in talks with all parties, a prioritised coalition will be formed with their favoured parties – the Centre Party, and the Socialist Left Party. The three parties are to undergo negotiation rounds to discuss topics for the future of Norway, which can unite or divide the red-green coalition (Dagsavisen, VG).
Firstly, the parties mainly agree that all cars sold after 2025 (2023 for the Socialist Left) are to be emission free and household electricity is to ultimately become more accessible for an average Norwegian. Additionally, there is a general agreement on the importance of achieving the Paris Agreement goals, but there are differing opinions regarding the means of reaching them. For instance, The Labour Party and Centre Party want a decrease of Norway’s greenhouse gas emissions by 55% comparing 1990 with 2030, whilst the Socialist Left want that figure to be 70%. Decreases are to be underpinned by large investments in CCS, green hydrogen, battery technology and offshore wind to depart from a high carbon economy, an objective which all parties agree upon.
However, there are larger issues discussed earlier by NGN that position the coalition at a crossroads – Norway’s oil policy. The Centre Party and Labour Party want to further develop the oil industry, while Støre states that there will be no more prospecting on Norwegian seas. Conversely, the Socialist Left Party wants oil exploration in Norway to cease. (FVN, E24)
A call for Sweden to invest in green projects is voiced by Åsa Lindhagen, the Financial Markets Minister and member of the Green Party. Lindhagen proposes that the government ends its dedication to the 0,33% budget surplus targeted in Sweden. Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson from the Social Democrats is willing to budge on the budget-surplus target and move toward a balanced-budget target. However, Lindhagen pushes the agenda even further, wanting to add to Sweden’s debt, as it is below the European Union average (BloombergBusiness).
Epiroc, a technology supplier to the mining and infrastructure industries, agreed to acquire the organisation and assets in FVT Research, a Canadian company that converts diesel-fuelled mining equipment into battery-electric vehicles. FVT Research had 25 employees and a revenue of 27 million SEK in 2020. Helena Hedblom, CEO and President of Epiroc states that their customers are increasingly discovering the benefits of using battery-electric vehicles, and FVT Research brings technical competence that aids Epiroc in providing more solutions in that area (Verkstäderna, press release)
During a test period, OKQ8 will sell "renewable petrol" made from food waste, which will provide up to 65% lower carbon dioxide emissions, writes TT. The renewable petrol will only be available at different petrol stations - in Norrtälje, Uppsala, Gävle, Enköping and Västerås. The fuel is approved for all cars that can run on the standard E10 petrol. “It is a petrol according to the usual Swedish standard, the difference is that it is largely made from renewable raw materials,” said Erik Stenströmer Moglia, Fuel Manager at OKQ8. The renewable petrol is manufactured by Neste, which emphasizes that the test is only small-scale and that it is too early to talk about broader commercial use. Moglia added “We hope that we can make it easier for manufacturers to make investment decisions on larger volumes. They must see that there is a demand, a long-term perspective linked to petrol and petrol demand, and a willingness on the part of politicians to support this over time.”
Together with the Swedish aviation industry and universities, Saab will lead a project to map technological pathways that support a future of fossil free aviation. The project is supported by the Swedish Energy Agency and is primarily aimed at the Swedish and Nordic market by providing valuable technical insight to decision makers in the sustainable aviation field. From industry, Saab and GKN Aerospace will participate, while Linköping University and Chalmers University of Technology represent the academic field. To uphold transparency in the project, reports, data, and publications are public and available to the research community (Industripress).
Sweden’s new green tax deduction has accelerated the number of Swedish solar cell installations that this winter may exceed 100,000. At the turn of the year, there were 66,000 grid-connected solar cell installations and Svensk Solenergi's forecast is that 34,000 new ones will be added this year. From the turn of the year, a tax deduction was introduced worth almost 15% of the total cost of an installation, or a maximum of SEK 50,000, whereas previously, households had to apply for state money retrospectively. (TT)
With pressure from the EU Commission forest strategy that proposes heavy regulation of deforestation with exceptions for specific cases, the Minister for Environment and Climate Per Bolund states that it leaves a lot to interpretation on a national level which he aims to clarify. The Green Party has historically opposed large deforestation, with Bolund putting the blame on the large forest companies. “We are not completely against clear-felling. However, deforestation on extensive areas caused by big forest companies entail risks for Sweden’s biodiversity”, according to Bolund. The LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry) regulation sets the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent that forests of member states should absorb. The Commission is currently looking into increasing Sweden’s contribution from 37 million tonnes to 47 million tonnes of CO2 sequestration. This would require a re-direction from Sweden’s use of biomass which traditionally has been burned, towards producing liquid fuels to replace fossil fuels or maintain forests as a means of absorbing CO2. Further, the Government proposes annual investments of 810 million SEK until 2027 to the Swedish Forest Agency’s (Skogsstyrelsen) work with deforestation permits (MP, Dagens Industri).
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.