Norway CO2 cuts of up to 80 % "dead cheap": study

Reuters

Oct 4, 2006 — By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway can axe emissions of greenhouse gases by up to 80 percent by 2050 without constraining economic growth in the world's number three oil exporter, a government-appointed commission said on Wednesday.

"Cutting emissions … is important, it's feasible and it's dead cheap," Joergen Randers, a professor of economics at the Norwegian School of Management who led the commission, told a news conference with Environment Minister Helen Bjoernoy.

The report urged Norway to fight global warming to 2050 mainly by saving energy and by capturing and burying carbon dioxide emitted by gas-fired power plants. The gases would be piped offshore and entombed in porous rocks.

Overall, 15 proposed measures would cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 50-80 percent by 2050 as part of a drive to slow climate change that many scientists say could bring more floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

Bjoernoy said the center-left government would study the proposals.

Other countries including Britain, France and Sweden and U.S. states such as California, are also planning big cuts in emissions from power plants, industry and cars in coming decades.

Such long-term cuts go far beyond an average 5.2 percent reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by 2008-2012 agreed by 35 industrial nations including Norway under the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol.

Many governments worry the cuts will cost too much.

But Randers said the commission's proposals would affect Norway's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2050 by less than 0.5 percent over more than four decades compared to a forecast with no climate measures.

Under the proposals, the main cost would be a roughly 30 percent rise in the cost of generating electricity from gas-fired power plants, to 0.6 crowns ($0.09) per kilowatt hour from 0.44. Taxpayers would shoulder the extra cost.

HEATING

And energy savings in other areas, including more efficient heating of buildings, would offset the costs. Development of carbon capture from power plants could also give Norway a technological edge. ....

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