Norway’s climate quotas have not led to emissions cuts

Norway joined the EU’s Emissions Trading System in 2008, after which time Norwegian companies had to consider whether it would be cheaper to cut their emissions or buy an emissions allowance from abroad. 

 

The conclusion thus far is that it has been cheaper to buy the allowances, Dagens Næringsliv reported, referencing a new report from researchers at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and Statistics Norway.

 

“The emissions system has not contributed to notably lower greenhouse gas emissions from Norwegian companies,” one of the report’s authors, NMBU professor Knut Einar Rosendahl, said. 

 

In 2005 through 2007, when Norway was only partially included in phase one of the EU quota system, there were no reductions in the nation’s emissions. The same was true in 2013, the first year of the system’s third phase. 

 

“We found some instances of emissions cuts in phase two, but it could not be determined with certainty,” Rosendahl told Dagens Næringsliv, referring to the period that ran from 2008 to 2012.