The EU and Norway have established a Green Alliance to strengthen their joint climate action, environmental protection efforts, and cooperation on the clean energy and industrial transition.
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The agreement was signed in Brussels by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.
President von der Leyen said: “Norway is a long-standing and reliable partner to the EU and we share a common vision for building a climate-neutral continent. We want our societies and economies to prosper together while reducing emissions, protecting nature, decarbonising our energy systems, and greening our industries.
"This Green Alliance makes our bond even stronger and allows us to design a better future together.â€
Both sides reiterate their commitment to their respective 2030 targets of at least 55% greenhouse gas emission reductions compared to 1990, and to achieving climate neutrality at the latest by 2050.
They aim to keep global temperature rise within the 1.5C limit under the Paris Agreement while ensuring energy security, environmental protection and human rights.
The EU and Norway will work closely together to ensure the successful implementation of the Paris Agreement and the historic biodiversity agreement reached at the UN Biodiversity conference COP15.
The EU-Norway Green Alliance, prepared and negotiated under the auspices of Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal Frans Timmermans, will focus on the following priority areas:
• strengthening efforts to combat climate change including cooperation on climate adaptation, carbon pricing, carbon removals, and carbon capture, transport, utilisation and storage;
• increasing cooperation on environmental issues with a focus on halting and reversing biodiversity loss, forest degradation and deforestation, promoting circular economy and addressing the full life cycle of plastics, the development of global standards for the management of chemicals and waste and sustainable ocean management;
• supporting the green industrial transition and further enhancing political and industrial cooperation through strategic partnerships, such as a future Strategic Partnership on Sustainable Raw Materials and Batteries Value Chains;
• accelerating the clean energy transition with a focus on hydrogen and offshore renewable energy.
• decarbonising the transport sector across all modes of transport, with special regard to zero GHG emission and zero pollution shipping;
• increasing regulatory and business cooperation to set global standards for the innovative environmental solutions required to accelerate the transition to circular and net-zero economies;
• consolidating existing collaboration on research, education, and innovation in the areas of decarbonisation, renewable energy, and bioeconomy;
• working together to promote sustainable finance and investments to set Europe on a pathway to an environmentally sustainable, climate-neutral and climate resilient economy. ■