The EU and Norway have announced plans to explore the establishment of a Green Alliance to leverage green industry, renewable energy, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) through existing and new relevant frameworks.
It follows a meeting of a delegation of the Norwegian Government led by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre with EU President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans, aiming to enhance the EU-Norway dialogue and co-operation on climate, energy and industrial transformation.
They reaffirmed the EU and Norway’s commitment to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and achieve domestic climate neutrality by 2050.
Specific areas of mutual interest were discussed, including sustainable technologies and markets essential to speed up the green transition such as green and low carbon hydrogen, offshore wind energy, CCS, minerals, batteries and green shipping.
The EU and Norway also discussed the next steps of international negotiations, reaffirming their commitment to the Paris climate agreement and international climate finance, working towards reaching $100 billion (£74bn) per year for developing countries.
Ms von der Leyen said: “Together, the EU and Norway will drive even more strongly the ambition we share for achieving climate neutrality. We will work more closely together to unfold the potential for decarbonising our economies and in particular our energy systems, making them more resilient to climate change and to global tensions. The EEA agreement is an excellent basis for strengthening our EU-Norway cooperation on climate.
“We are keen to firm up our joint action for the European Green Deal even more and explore establishing a Green Alliance”.
Mr Støre added: “In support of shared ambitions for cutting emissions and creating jobs, Norway and the EU have initiated enhanced co-operation and joint efforts to facilitate the establishment of a Green Alliance.
“Focus would in particular be on sustainable energy and industry, facilitating technologies and markets essential to speed up the green transition. We will promote a sound transition, climate neutral growth and energy security, drawing on existing and new relevant frameworks in robust and close Norway-EU relations.”
