The conference took place between August 31st and September 1st, following last year’s successful roundtable in Bangalore, and was put together by Indian Institute of Management, with the support of the Norwegian Embassy, the British High Commission, the Government of India and GTZ.
An ambitious global international climate agreement
In the Norwegian Ambassador’s speech to the audience, she stated that Norway aims at Carbon neutrality by 2050, and in the event of an ambitious global international climate agreement, we will aim to achieve this by 2030, the Ambassador stated. Global warming can only be stabilised if all major emissions and sectors are included in the new regime. Norway has decided to increase the support for efforts at preventing deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries with about 500 million USD a year. To ensure substantial, predictable and long-term financial flows to developing countries that achieve measurable and verifiable reduction in emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, Norway is working to include a REDD mechanism. As one of the mayor shipping nations in the world, Norway has also proposed to include emissions from international shipping in a new Copenhagen agreement.
Mobilising finance
The US together with EU, India and China hold the key to an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen, Ms. Ollestad continued. It is important to acknowledge that the right to economic growth and poverty eradication is fundamental for developing countries. The emissions reductions in developing countries need to combine the overall goal of emission reductions with the need for economic growth in a sustainable and low carbon manner.
A low carbon economy requires accelerated development and deployment of such emission reduction technologies. Technologies related to renewable energy and energy efficiency measures must be implemented in all relevant sectors and is available to developing countries. For Norway, Carbon Capture and Storage is a potential key mitigation technology, with the potential of reducing emissions up to 20-28% of required emission reductions up to 2050.
Significant and predictable financial resources must be mobilised to support necessary mitigation and adaptation. In Norway’s opinion a financial architecture in a new climate agreement must embody various financing mechanisms to address different needs and challenges. As one way of mobilizing financial resources for climate change actions, Norway has proposed auctioning of emission allowances in an emission trading system. We think a certain amount of the emission reduction allowances issued under the Copenhagen Agreement should be auctioned at the international level to generate new and additional funds for supporting climate change actions, the Ambassador stated.
Opportunities in diversity
India will play a key role in the international arena in finding solutions to major global challenges such as climate change. With its strong economic growth, dynamic development of its democratic political system, and the world’s second largest population, India has become an increasingly important global player. The Indian Government should be commended for the importance that it has attached to climate change both on the national as well as on the international level, the Ambassador noted. The Government of Norway is eager to collaborate with the Government of India in meeting their objectives, and currently support a solar based rural electrification project in 30 villages in India, a project co-funded by the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Furthermore, climate, environment and energy are some of the key issues of the Norwegian Government’s India strategy providing 3, 3 million USD per year for supporting Indo-Norwegian research initiatives over the next 10 years. The Norwegian Pension Fund - Global, which is the world’s second largest sovereign wealth fund, at the end of 2008 also had shareholdings in 232 Indian companies that amounted to nearly 1, 2 billion US dollars. This public pension fund now aims to use fresh funds to buy environmentally-friendly shares – or green shares – in India and in other emerging markets.