Norway’s GHG emissions have remained relatively constant (between 54 and 58 MtCO₂e/yr) since the turn of the century. Since 1990, Norway’s oil and gas industry emissions have overtaken those from its manufacturing and mining sector, with the former’s emissions roughly doubling since 1990, now making up over a quarter of total emissions, while the latter’s have almost halved over the same period.^4,5,6 This is despite the Norwegian oil and gas sector being subject to both the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) and a domestic carbon tax with the latter having been in place since 1991.⁷ However, these policies have helped to keep the emissions intensity of its oil and gas extraction well below the global average.

Transport sector emissions have declined since 2014, but remain the second-largest source of energy-related GHG emissions, accounting for roughly a quarter of total emissions. Industry energy use, buildings and fugitive emissions each contribute roughly 5-6% of overall emissions, while industrial process-related emissions are responsible for about 18%. Agriculture and waste contribute 9% and 2% of total emissions respectively.

¹ Norwegian Government. Update of Norway’s nationally determined contribution. 1–16 (2020).

² Norwegian Environmental Agency. Norway’s Fourth Biennial Report. (2020).

³ Energy Facts Norway. Electricity Production.(2021).

⁴ Climate Action Tracker. Country Summary: Norway. (2021).

⁵ Statistics Norway. Emissions to air. (2021).

⁶ Norwegian Government. Norway’s long-term low-emission strategy for 2050. (2020).

⁷ Gavenas, E., Rosendahl, K. E. & Skjerpen, T. CO2 emissions from Norwegian oil and gas extraction. (2015).

⁸ IEA. World Energy Balances 2019 . (2020).

⁹ Klesty, V. Electric cars rise to record 54% market share in Norway in 2020. Reuters. (2021).

¹⁰ Norsk elbilforening. Electric Car Stock. (2021).

¹¹ Norwegian Government. Norway’s comprehensive climate action plan. (2021).

¹² Buli, N. & Adomaitis, N. Norway’s plans to raise carbon tax draw oil industry ire. Reuters. (2021).

¹³ Norsk elbilforening. Norwegian EV policy. (2021).

¹⁴ Avinor. Avinor and Norwegian aviation 2018. (2018).

¹⁵ Brown, M. Norway Just Mandated Zero-Emission Fjords to Lead Electric Boat Charge | Inverse. (2018).

¹⁶ Reuters. Oil producer Norway bans use of heating oil in buildings. (2017).

¹⁷ Government of Norway. 2021 Common Reporting Format (CRF) Table. (2021).

¹⁸ EHPA. Online Stats Tool. European Heat Pump Association. (2021).

¹⁹ Brekke, T., Isachsen, O. & Marton, I. Implementation of the EPBD Norway: Status in 2020. (2020).

²⁰ Norwegian Petroleum. Production Forecasts. (2022)..

²¹ Solsvik, T. Norway plans to expand Arctic oil and gas drilling in new licensing round. Reuters .(2022).

²² Kurmayer, N. J. Germany, Norway agree tentative plan to build hydrogen pipeline link. Euractiv. (2022).

²³ Klesty, V. Electric cars hit 65% of Norway sales as Tesla grabs overall pole. Reuters. (2022)..

²⁴ Ferris, N. Weekly data: Why Norway leads the world for electric vehicles. Energy Monitor. (2022).

²⁵ Holland, M. Norway Above 86% Plugin EV Share In February, Ioniq 5 Leads. CleanTechnica. (2022).

²⁶ Government of Norway. Norway’s comprehensive climate action plan. (2021).

²⁷ Government of Norway. National Transport Plan 2022–2033. (2021).

²⁸ While global cost-effective pathways assessed by the IPCC Special Report 1.5°C provide useful guidance for an upper-limit of emissions trajectories for developed countries, they underestimate the feasible space for such countries to reach net zero earlier. The current generation of models tend to depend strongly on land-use sinks outside of currently developed countries and include fossil fuel use well beyond the time at which these could be phased out, compared to what is understood from bottom-up approaches. The scientific teams which provide these global pathways constantly improve the technologies represented in their models – and novel CDR technologies are now being included in new studies focused on deep mitigation scenarios meeting the Paris Agreement. A wide assessment database of these new scenarios is not yet available; thus, we rely on available scenarios which focus particularly on BECCS as a net-negative emission technology. Accordingly, we do not yet consider land-sector emissions (LULUCF) and other CDR approaches which developed countries will need to implement in order to counterbalance their remaining emissions and reach net zero GHG are not considered here due to data availability.

²⁹ Year of full decarbonisation is based on carbon intensity threshold of 5gCO₂/MJ.