The Progress Party is calling on the government to renegotiate the Paris Agreement. China and India have increased their emissions, whilst the EU’s emissions account for a meagre 6 per cent of global emissions. It is not cost-effective to spend so much money on something that yields so little in return. Especially not when it leads to the demise of industry in Europe.
– The Paris Agreement must be renegotiated and developed. We must ensure a level playing field so that Europe does not out-compete itself by pursuing a policy that is completely different from that of China, India, the US and other competing countries, says Progress Party leader Sylvi Listhaug to NTB.
Jonas Gahr Støre is due to arrive in Turkey on Wednesday, where the climate summit is taking place. Støre must raise the issue that the Paris Agreement needs to be renegotiated.
– Europe and Norway must start facing up to reality. Whilst Europe is now reducing its emissions, they are only increasing in the rest of the world. On top of that, we are seeing the European economy suffering more and more,” says Listhaug.
Tor Mikkel Wara is a spokesperson on energy policy.
– The Paris Agreement is ten years old, and we supported it ten years ago. But it isn’t working as it should. Emissions have risen every single year since it was signed, and they are rising most sharply in India and China,” says Wara.
We are constantly being told that we must make greater sacrifices to save the climate. But the figures show that China is not making any sacrifices at all. These are figures that are rarely mentioned in the debate, even though they are absolutely crucial. When Europe introduces green policies, European goods are outcompeted by China. China has a trade surplus with the EU of 10 billion kroner. Per day.
A review carried out by Energy and Climate shows that China’s share of emissions has increased dramatically over the past 30-odd years, and that by 2025 it was greater than that of the US, the EU and India combined.
The EU’s share of emissions is shockingly low.
– The EU accounts for around 6 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, so we cannot prevent global warming on our own. The EU cannot do it, and Norway cannot do it either, he says.
Europe’s contribution to the global climate balance is so small that the measures make no difference. But they make a huge difference to the European economy, which is being outcompeted by China and, increasingly, by the US and Asia as a whole. Europe is left as the big loser.
India’s emissions surpassed those of the EU in 2022 and have risen sharply over the last decade, according to the same review.
– This isn’t working. We have now exceeded the 1.5-degree target, and we are failing. Can’t we come up with something else, then? Something that has to be realistic. There’s no point in setting utopian targets that nobody can achieve,” says Wara.
How are things in the US? Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement for the second time in January last year. So surely emissions have risen? But no.
Emissions there have largely been falling in recent years.
Europe’s workers will not put up with being sacrificed on the altar of climate action when none of the major emitting countries are showing any willingness to cut emissions.
– “They realise they cannot tell hundreds of thousands of industrial workers in Europe that their jobs are going to disappear,” says Wara.
Sylvi Listhaug raises another question: What does climate policy cost?
– How much does it cost to meet the climate targets Norway has set? We’ve asked, and we keep asking and asking and asking. But we’re not getting any answers.
She believes this may be down to two things:
– Either they don’t know what the requirements and targets they’ve adopted will cost. If that’s the case, it would be a very irresponsible way to conduct politics.
– The other possibility is that they do know what it costs, but they do not want to say so, because it is becoming so expensive that people are now starting to notice it, and businesses are noticing it.
