Official figures show that real “climate cuts” in Norway have stalled. According to the Norwegian Environment Agency, emissions of the plant nutrient CO₂ from industry and aviation were reduced by 0.03 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent (also known as MtCO₂-e) in 2025 compared with 2024. That corresponds to around one per mille of the total emissions of 21.7 million tonnes from these sectors last year. It was the same reduction as in 2024.

The “climate cuts” are therefore not progressing, despite the all-consuming focus and expenditure by Norwegian politicians. Through the Paris Agreement of 2015, they have committed Norway to a 55 per cent reduction by 2030 and a 70–75 per cent reduction by 2035 compared with the 1990 baseline year—without ever asking the following two absolutely crucial questions:

• Is this physically possible at all with current technology?
• What will this experiment cost society in total?

Approximately half of Norway’s total emissions originate from the emissions trading sector. There was a slight increase in emissions from the oil and gas industry in 2025, while other industries saw a slight decline according to reports and official bureaucracy. It is important to remember, however, that this “climate accounting” is to a very large extent based on “think of a number”, where reality is simply defined by decree.

Systemic, incompetent self-deception

Norway is one of the most electrified countries in the world. Norwegian process industries are already almost 100 per cent electrified. Further emissions reductions therefore require extremely expensive experimental technology for carbon capture and storage (CCS). In addition, enormous amounts of electricity-intensive electrolysis are required for the production of ammonia and hydrogen as energy carriers and fuels.

There is no realism among politicians and journalists regarding the adopted “climate targets” or the costs that accompany them. Only four years remain until the 55 per cent reduction target for 2030 is supposed to be achieved, and scarcely anything has been accomplished. Yet instead of facing reality, climate politicians simply adopt ever more ambitious climate targets.

The solution is always “more of what has not worked”. In reality, only one option remains for achieving the adopted and meaningless climate targets: paying other countries to make reductions on Norway’s behalf through “emissions trading”. This will cost so much that you can bid farewell to a substantial portion of Norway’s oil wealth, without any guarantee that a single kilogram of CO₂ will be reduced abroad. But it certainly looks good on paper.

Norway’s climate policy has no relevance whatsoever, either globally or locally, for the weather or the climate. It merely creates costs, bureaucracy, and problems for household finances, jobs, and businesses—exactly as has been warned for years.

Unfortunately, so much money, power, and prestige are involved that we are still years away from a return to reality of the kind the United States has undergone.