Either the EU will not meet its net zero targets or Norway will face stranded assets if the country’s gas continues to be supplied to the bloc, a report by European non-profits says
The EU must resist “Norway’s push for more Arctic oil and fossil gas exploration and focus instead on sustainable energy solutions”, says a report by Zero Carbon Analytics, Greenpeace, Oil Change International, Transport and Environment and WWF Norway.
The non-profits criticise the expansion of Norwegian gas exploration, including the 141 exploration licences that have been distributed in the Arctic Barents Sea since 2010. The REPowerEU strategy, which outlines measures to shift the EU economy towards renewable energy and increase energy efficiency, has a “noticeable void” when it comes to measures to cut oil and gas consumption, the report says.
The International Energy Agency’s net zero scenario says that there can be no new upstream fossil fuel development projects if the world is to reach zero emissions by 2050.
The EU’s continued support of the Norwegian fossil fuel industry, in the form of long-term contracts, does “not coincide” with the IEA’s net zero scenario or the union’s climate goals, the report says. Half of the gas supplied to the EU from Norway is based on long-term contracts, an approach that risks leading to oversupply if the EU manages to meet its climate targets, it adds.
Speaking at a launch event for the report in the European parliament on February 21, Finnish MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen said: “In this Norwegian project, everything is wrong.”
“Please stop these gas projects, we don’t need them, we don’t want them,” pleaded Danish MEP Niels Fuglsang.
The report recommends that the EU stops “pursuing the expansion of gas products” in Norway and elsewhere by no longer signing long-term contracts. At the same time, Norway should “halt the exploration, licensing and development of new oil and fossil gas fields”, it says, including the use of gas for the production of “blue hydrogen”.
But not everyone at the event was convinced by the report’s findings.
As the EU “transitions away” from fossil fuels, Norway should act as a “secure, trusted and close” supplier of “relatively clean” natural gas, claimed European Commission deputy director-general for energy Matthew Baldwin. “We will need gas in our pipes as a transition fuel all the way through to 2049.”
A spokesperson for the state-owned Norwegian oil company Equinor argued that EU demand was driving gas production, and that the company has “problems reconciling the demand … for oil and gas from the EU with [how much gas is stored in] reserves”.
“There is a whole world out there” that will continue to purchase Norwegian gas even if the EU does not, they added.
The report is available to read here.