Nordic Solutions to Tackle the Climate Crisis

Vice-President of the European Commission, Jyrki Katainen, was present when the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Nordic Council of Ministers presented the report Nordic Green to Scale at Norway House in Brussels on 3 March.

The study is a collaboration between the Nordic countries and contains 15 existing solutions that have proven to be successful in the Nordic countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Three of the 15 solutions in the report are Norwegian:

• Carbon capture and storage in oil and gas production
• Electric vehicles
• Reducing methane in oil and gas production

Se all the solutions here.

– If other countries would be willing to scale up these solutions to the same extent as the Nordic countries, we would be able to create miracles, said VP Katainen.

Could reduce emissions by 4 Gt.

According to the report, countries all over the world can reduce 4 gigatonnes of emissions every year by scaling up the 15 Nordic solutions. This amount is equivalent to EUs annual greenhouse gas emission.

– The world does not have to change in order to reach the climate goals set in the Paris Agreement. We already have existing solutions that work, we just need to put them to use, said Katainen.

Net cost of $ 13 billion

The net cost of implementing the solutions to the same extent as in the Nordic countries, is estimated at approximately $ 13 billion.

– The cost of the scale-up is equivalent to nine days of fossil fuels subsidies. That is a lot of money, but a small price to pay compared to what these solutions can do for the climate, said Sitra senior adviser Oras Tynkkynen when he presented the report in Brussels.

Climate and the environment are important priority areas in Norway’s charimanship of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2017.

“This article has been published on the Norway and the EU website in March 2017.”