

Norway partnered with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition in 2012 and since then has worked to promote action on climate and clean air to reduce the rate of global warming in the near term – and drastically reduce air pollution at the same time.
“It is not irrelevant how we reach the Paris temperature targets. To succeed in the long term, we need to choose a path that will slow the rate of global warming in the near term,” said former Minister of Climate and the Environment Ola Elvestuen. “By reducing both short-lived climate pollutants such as methane, black carbon and HFCs and long-lived gases like CO2, we increase our chance of success.”
Jonas Gahr Støre, current Prime Minister of Norway, said, "the impact of climate change is already here. The world needs to act together to reduce global warming. Rapidly reducing methane emissions is one of the most efficient and accessible solutions, at the same time as it leads to improved clean air quality and global crop yields. This is a window of opportunity the world cannot afford to miss taking action on."
In 2017, Norway passed the Climate Act to help the country transition to a low-emission society by 2050 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. Its work to reduce SLCPs has also been ambitious. Only modern, clean-burning wood stoves are sold, and in several municipalities public grants have helped to replace older wood burning stoves. Norway also has a tax and refund scheme to collect and safely destroy HFCs and a tax system encouraging the use of climate-friendly alternatives. It is illegal to dispose of organic waste in landfills, a law which both reduces methane emissions and helps create biogas to reduce diesel.
The capital city Oslo is also part of the CCAC’s BreatheLife campaign and just achieved the world’s highest concentration of electric cars. The government is also working on an action plan for making public transport fossil-free by 2025.
In a speech at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP25, in Madrid in 2019, Prime Minister Erna Solberg outlined the country’s work to electrify their car-parks and ferries and begin work on programmes for zero-emission transportation of goods saying that “green solutions are paving the way for new business opportunities and growth, as well as helping us to deal with climate threats.”
Enova SF is a state enterprise owned by the Ministry of Climate and Environment which has, since 2017, shifted more to climate-related activities that include fast-charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, zero and low-emissions ferries, and home heating efficiency.
Norway has already achieved its commitment under the revised Gothenburg Protocol of a 30 percent reduction in particulate matter (PM 2.5) emissions from 2005 levels, with PM2.5 reduced by about 34% in 2018 from 2005 levels.
Norway is close to the Arctic, making its black carbon emissions particularly crucial to mitigate given that a large portion lands on snow and glaciers and reduces their ability to reflect sunlight. In fact, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, in no small part due to short-lived climate pollutants.
In 2017, the eight nation Arctic Council set a collective target to limit black carbon emissions between 25 and 33 percent below 2013 levels by 2025 to slow Arctic warming, a target recommended by the Council’s Expert Group on Black Carbon and Methane. Norway also took over the chairmanship of the Arctic Contaminant Action Programme (ACAP) in 2019 saying in a statement that “Local emissions of soot particles and other short-lived climate polluters from petroleum activity, shipping and industries are contributing actively to warming and rapid melting in the Arctic.”
Norway supports CCAC projects in developing countries as a donor to the CCAC Trust Fund. Details about Norway's contributions and pledges can be found here. Read below for more highlights of Norway’s work.
Transport
Shipping
HFCs
Oil and Gas
Residential Heating
Agriculture
Assessments
Bilateral Cooperation
International Leadership
As part of their commitment to the Global Methane Pledge, countries have submitted these Methane Action Plans, which outline existing policies and future...
Thanks in large part to the growing number of integrated assessments, tools and good examples, international interest in applying integrated co-governance approaches to solve connected climate,...
The Norwegian Government wishes to contribute to the battle against non-communicable diseases in low-income countries. This work will be included in health related development cooperation and will...
These presentations were used during the event, "The Pathway to the Paris Targets Matters", held during the UNFCCC forty-eighth sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 48)....
This document presents results from the Climate & Clean Air Coalition’s Urban Health Initiative reported between July 2016 and June 2017. These results were recorded using the...
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