EU’s deposit refund scheme a ‘false solution’ for plastic pollution

EU’s deposit refund scheme a ‘false solution’ for plastic pollution

Post By World carbon emissions, Environment, European Union, Features, France, Germany, Norway, Pollution, Recycling, sweden

The European Union in early March announced its goal of establishing deposit refund schemes for plastic bottles and aluminium cans across the bloc by 2029. While EU authorities boast of high recycling rates in member states that have already adopted the practice, environmental groups denounce it as a “false solution” that doesn’t “tackle the real problem”.

The EU aims to become a star performer in the fight against plastic pollution. The bloc’s 27 countries earlier this month announced measures to address packaging waste that aim to achieve 100 percent recycling rates by 2035 and a 15 percent reduction in waste volume by 2040. According to Eurostat, the average European citizen generated 188.7 kilograms of packaging waste in 2021, an increase of 32 kilograms over a decade. Only 64 percent of that amount is recycled today.

Among the various types of packaging filling trash bins in Europe, two make up the majority: plastic bottles and aluminium cans. In France alone, an estimated 340,000 tonnes of plastic bottles were produced for sale in 2022 and only 50 percent were recycled, according to France’s national agency for ecological transition.

To address this problem, the EU proposes to implement a bloc-wide deposit refund system by 2029. Plastic bottles and aluminium cans would be sold for a few cents more, around five to 10 percent of the product’s price, but the consumer could recoup the added cost by bringing the container to a collection point after use. The process is already well-established in 15 European countries including Germany, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian states.

The EU reports record recycling rates in each country where a deposit system already exists. In Germany, all supermarkets have had machines dedicated to “Pfand” (deposits) for returned plastic and glass bottles and aluminium cans since 2003. While consumers are not obligated to use them, the practice has become part of everyday life. “Pfandsammler” (deposit hunters) clear the streets of used containers to help make ends meet. Up to 98.5 percent of bottles and cans are recycled via the deposit system in Germany, according to the Centre for European Consumption.

A similar situation exists in the Nordic countries. In Sweden, aluminium cans have been returnable since 1984; plastic bottles since 1994. The country recycles more than two billion of these containers a year, according to the government. In Norway, the system is a little different: Beverage packaging is subject to an environmental tax, but its amount decreases as the waste collection rate increases. This measure encouraged producers and distributors to introduce a deposit system in 1999. The country’s recycling rate for glass and plastic bottles borders is close to 90 percent.

This graphic shows which European countries have already implemented deposit programmes for recycled materials. Dark blue = already implemented, blue = planned implementation, light blue = without a widespread programme, white = information unavailable. Red = glass, yellow = plastic, green = aluminium. © ENTR

A dangerous ‘rebound effect’

Deposit refund systems are not, however, “miracle solutions”, says Manon Richert, communications manager for the NGO Zero Waste France. “This system can certainly help improve recycling figures, but it doesn’t target the goal we need to have: drastically reducing our production of plastic.”

“By itself, it’s just another way to sort packaging … it won’t change anything that happens to plastic bottles,” says Richert. Once deposited, a bottle will have the same fate as one placed in a traditional recycling bin. It will be collected and sent to a waste treatment plant. Bottles made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate, a type of plastic) will be used to make new ones; other bottles will be transformed into flakes and resold to make polyester, especially in Asia. “These processes require a lot of water and energy and generate microplastics,” Richert says.

According to the activist, a bloc-wide deposit system could above all produce a “rebound effect” that would encourage consumers to continue buying plastic bottles – the opposite of the EU’s goal. “For years, we have been fed a discourse that presents waste sorting and recycling as an easy green gesture, and we have spread the idea that buying plastic isn’t so bad if we recycle it. And now, we’re going to add a financial incentive,” she says. “This could have the perverse effect of boosting consumption of plastic bottles.”

This effect has already been seen in Germany. A law passed in 2003 aimed to reduce single-use containers to 20 percent of the market, but the opposite has happened: single-use plastic bottles now account for 71 percent of the market compared with 40 percent a decade ago, according to a 2021 University of Halle-Wittenberg study. “It seems that the introduction of a single-use deposit system promotes a narrow mode of thinking and a focus on recycling, which hinders the revitalisation of multi-use BC (beverage container) systems,” the authors found.

“Behind the recycling deposit, it’s more a battle of financial interests than an environmental issue that’s at stake,” says Richert. In recent years, politicians have done more to force manufacturers to use a growing proportion of recycled plastic in production. The demand for recycled plastic has thus grown, and the material has become more expensive.

Collecting and recycling more bottles would increase the quantity of recycled plastic available, therefore lowering its price – “not exactly what encourages manufacturers to reduce production,” says Richert. “In the end, this measure risks maintaining the plastic production cycle, when we need to break it.”

In France, where debate on a deposit system is lively, the collection and sorting of rubbish is currently managed by local and regional authorities, who sell the trash to recyclers. In moving to a deposit system, the management of used plastics would revert to manufacturers, who would recover a financial windfall.

“The manufacturers are not going to get rich” under such a system, retorts Hélène Courades, director general of beverage industry group Boissons rafraîchissantes de France, which includes Coca-Cola and Pepsi, told Le Figaro. “The resale of this material would make it possible to finance the system.”

Recycling vs reuse

Zero Waste France, like other environmental organisations, is actively campaigning for a different system: a deposit for reuse, mostly for glass. “This existed in France until the 1980s,” says Richert. “The idea is to collect the containers to wash them and reuse them as-is, in line with the principle of a circular economy.”

“If this were organised on a local scale with, for example, optimisation and pooling of transport, the environmental and social impact would be very beneficial,” she says. But while such local and voluntary initiatives have been increasing in recent years, the system has not yet been adopted by the political discourse. “It requires a real paradigm shift and a true effort on the part of the government,” says Richert. “But it’s this kind of measure that can really get us away from disposable packaging and our addiction to plastic.”

This article is a translation of the original in French.

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The North Sea could become a ‘central storage camp’ for carbon waste. Not everyone likes the idea

Post By Oil and Gas business news, Carbon capture, Climate, Energy, Environment, Norway, Norway government, Oil and Gas, Pollution, TotalEnergies SE

The receiving dock at the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project, controlled by Equinor ASA, Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE, at Blomoyna, Norway, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Norway’s government wants to show the world it is possible to safely inject and store carbon waste under the seabed, saying the North Sea could soon become a “central storage camp” for polluting industries across Europe.

Offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) refers to a range of technologies that seek to capture carbon from high-emitting activities, transport it to a storage site and lock it away indefinitely under the seabed.

The oil and gas industry has long touted CCS as an effective tool in the fight against climate change and polluting industries are increasingly looking to offshore carbon storage as a way to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Critics, however, have warned about the long-term risks associated with permanently storing carbon beneath the seabed, while campaigners argue the technology represents “a new threat to the world’s oceans and a dangerous distraction from real progress on climate change.”

Norway’s Energy Minister Terje Aasland was bullish on the prospects of his country’s so-called Longship project, which he says will create a full, large-scale CCS value chain.

“I think it will prove to the world that this technology is important and available,” Aasland said via videoconference, referring to Longship’s CCS facility in the small coastal town of Brevik.

“I think the North Sea, where we can store CO2 permanently and safely, may be a central storage camp for several industries and countries and Europe,” he added.

Storage tanks at the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project, controlled by Equinor ASA, Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE, at Blomoyna, Norway, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024.

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Norway has a long history of carbon management. For nearly 30 years, it has captured and reinjected carbon from gas production into seabed formations on the Norwegian continental shelf.

It’s Sleipner and Snøhvit carbon management projects have been in operation since 1996 and 2008, respectively, and are often held up as proof of the technology’s viability. These facilities separate carbon from their respective produced gas, then compress and pipe the carbon and reinject it underground.

“We can see the increased interest in carbon capture storage as a solution and those who are skeptical to that kind of solution can come to Norway and see how we have done in at Sleipner and Snøhvit,” Norway’s Aasland said. “It’s several thousand meters under the seabed, it’s safe, it’s permanent and it’s a good way to tackle the climate emissions.”

Both Sleipner and Snøhvit projects incurred some teething problems, however, including interruptions during carbon injection.

Citing these issues in a research note last year, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a U.S.-based think tank, said that rather than serving as entirely successful models to be emulated and expanded, the problems “call into question the long-term technical and financial viability of the concept of reliable underground carbon storage.”

‘Overwhelming’ interest

Norway plans to develop the $2.6 billion Longship project in two phases. The first is designed to have an estimated storage capacity of 1.5 million metric tons of carbon annually over an operating period of 25 years — and carbon injections could start as early as next year. A possible second phase is predicted to have a capacity of 5 million tons of carbon.

Campaigners say that even with the planned second phase increasing the amount of carbon stored under the seabed by a substantial margin, “it remains a drop in the proverbial bucket.” Indeed, it is estimated that the carbon injected would amount to less than one-tenth of 1% of Europe’s carbon emissions from fossil fuels in 2021.

The government says Longship’s construction is “progressing well,” although Aasland conceded the project has been expensive.

“Every time we are bringing new technologies to the table and want to introduce it to the market, it is having high costs. So, this is the first of its kind, the next one will be cheaper and easier. We have learned a lot from the project and the development,” Aasland said.

“I think this will be quite a good project and we can show the world that it is possible to do it,” he added.

Workers at an entrance to the CO2 pipeline access tunnel at the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project, controlled by Equinor ASA, Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE, at Blomoyna, Norway, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024.

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A key component of Longship is the Northern Lights joint venture, a partnership between Norway’s state-backed oil and gas giant Equinor, Britain’s Shell and France’s TotalEnergies. The Northern Lights collaboration will manage the transport and storage part of Longship.

Børre Jacobsen, managing director for the Northern Lights Joint Venture, said it had received “overwhelming” interest in the project.

“There’s a long history of trying to get CCS going in one way or another in Norway and I think this culminated a few years ago in an attempt to learn from past successes — and not-so-big successes — to try and see how we can actually get CCS going,” Jacobsen told CNBC via videoconference.

Jacobsen said the North Sea was a typical example of a “huge basin” where there is a lot of storage potential, noting that offshore CCS has an advantage because no people live there.

A pier walkway at the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project, controlled by Equinor ASA, Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE, at Blomoyna, Norway, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“There is definitely a public acceptance risk to storing CO2 onshore. The technical solutions are very solid so any risk of leakage from these reservoirs is very small and can be managed but I think public perception is making it challenging to do this onshore,” Jacobsen said.

“And I think that is going to be the case to be honest which is why we are developing offshore storage,” he continued.

“Given the amount of CO2 that’s out there, I think it is very important that we recognize all potential storage. It shouldn’t actually matter, I think, where we store it. If the companies and the state that controls the area are OK with CO2 being stored on their continental shelves … it shouldn’t matter so much.”

Offshore carbon risks

A report published late last year by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), a Washington-based non-profit, found that offshore CCS is currently being pursued on an unprecedented scale.

As of mid-2023, companies and governments around the world had announced plans to construct more than 50 new offshore CCS projects, according to CIEL.

If built and operated as proposed, these projects would represent a 200-fold increase in the amount of carbon injected under the seafloor each year.

Nikki Reisch, director of the climate and energy program at CIEL, struck a somewhat cynical tone on the Norway proposition.

“Norway’s interpretation of the concept of a circular economy seems to say ‘we can both produce your problem, with fossil fuels, and solve it for you, with CCS,'” Reisch said.

“If you look closely under the hood at those projects, they’ve faced serious technical problems with the CO2 behaving in unanticipated ways. While they may not have had any reported leaks yet, there’s nothing to ensure that unpredictable behavior of the CO2 in a different location might not result in a rupture of the caprock or other release of the injected CO2.”

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As donors suspend critical funding to UNRWA, allegations against staff remain murky

Post By World Antonio Guterres, Antony Blinken, Features, Hamas, investigation, Israel, Israel Hamas war, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, Norway, UN, UNRWA

From our UN correspondent in New York – The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced on January 26 that it had terminated the contracts of several employees pending an investigation into Israeli allegations that they had been involved in Hamas’s October 7 attacks in Israel. The move prompted several nations to suspend vital funding to UNRWA while the inquiry proceeds, deepening Gaza’s already acute humanitarian crisis. But Israel refuses to share either its evidence or the intelligence dossier – a summary of which was seen by FRANCE 24 – with UNRWA, posing a challenge for the UN agency to complete its inquiry.

A senior Israeli diplomat surprised UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini during a routine in-person meeting in Tel Aviv on January 18, informing him that Israel had evidence UNRWA staff members were involved in the October 7 massacre in southern Israel that left more than 1,100 dead.

“We were shocked, we took this seriously because these were very serious allegations,” UNRWA director of communications Juliette Touma told FRANCE 24.

Lazzarini travelled to New York four days later to brief UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and then to the US State Department in Washington to warn UNRWA’s top donor, the United States, Touma said.

Lazzarini also “had a series of phone call interactions with several of our largest donors before the UN went public in the morning of January 26” with the decision to let some staff members go.

“We took the decision to put out the information first and not to respond to leaks,” Touma said.

She added that the Israeli information was given to Lazzarini verbally but that no evidence was shared.

UNRWA acted quickly and “cross-checked the information and the names they were given,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a press briefing last week.

The UN ended the contracts of the accused staff members and said it was launching an investigation into the Israeli claims. Touma said this unprecedented step was taken because the allegations “put the reputation of the agency and humanitarian operation in Gaza at serious risk”.

But despite the UN’s announcement of an immediate investigation, key UNRWA donors suspended funding to the agency pending its findings, as millions of Gazans go desperately hungry, are at risk of disease, and are forced to sleep in crude shelters or even on the streets amid continuing Israeli bombardment.

The accusations against a handful of staff in an agency of 13,000 employees operating in Gaza alone have already had a devastating effect on civilians. UNRWA provides essential government services in Gaza, including running 278 schools for 280,000 children and 22 primary healthcare centres, while also providing food to the approximately 2 million people who have been under siege by Israel since early October.

The ‘suspenders’

At least 16 donor countries, including the top two contributors – the US and Germany – have frozen funding to UNRWA over the allegations and have been dubbed the “suspenders” in the corridors of UN headquarters in New York.

About $440 million in funding is at risk, Touma said, adding that UNRWA will run out of money by the end of February if donors continue to withhold money.

The United States and other donor nations as well as the European Union have made it clear they will not resume funding until they are satisfied with the UN’s investigation. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement that there must be “complete accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks”.

Guterres has urged donor nations to resume funding to UNRWA immediately, reminding them of the “swift” action the UN is taking to address the accusations. He also asked Lazzarini to task an outside organisation with conducting a separate, independent assessment of the agency’s operations in addition to the internal UN review.

The UN announced on Monday that it had appointed Catherine Colonna, France’s former minister of foreign affairs, to lead the Independent Review Group to “assess whether the Agency is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are made”. The group will begin work on February 14 and will submit an interim report to the secretary general in late March with a final report – which will be made public – expected by late April 2024.

France, UNRWA’s fourth-biggest donor, has not suspended its voluntary contributions to the agency. France increased its funding in 2023 to €60 million, out of concern over the “disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza” and its impact on civilians. France’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying it will be “waiting for the investigations launched in recent days” to decide how to proceed regarding its contributions for 2024.

‘The dodgy dossier’

Israel has not yet shared its full intelligence dossier with either UNRWA or the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the UN legal body tasked with carrying out the internal investigation.

“I don’t think we need to give intelligence information,” said Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry. “This would reveal sources in the operation. We gave information to UNRWA about employees that worked for UNRWA that are members of Hamas.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated, “We haven’t had the ability to investigate [the allegations] ourselves. But they are highly, highly credible.”

Haiat noted that the very nature of the allegations makes it impossible for Israel to share all the evidence it has with UNRWA.

“They think that we can give them intelligence information, knowing that some of their employees work for Hamas? Are you serious? Why don’t we invite Hamas to our headquarters and have them sit at our desk and have a look at all the information we have?” he asked.

A six-page summary of the Israeli dossier leaked to a handful of media outlets and seen by FRANCE 24 provides the names of the 12 UNRWA staff members accused of participating in the Hamas attacks, ranging from kidnapping Israelis to helping to carry out the massacre at the Be’eri kibbutz. Two of the accused are dead and another is unaccounted for.

The dossier alleges that the first man on the list of the accused, an UNRWA school counselor, entered Israeli territory to kidnap an Israeli woman with the help of his son.

The accusations say they are drawn, in part, from “intelligence information, documents and identity cards seized during the course of the fighting”. The dossier estimates that there are around 190 Hamas or Palestine Islamic Jihad terrorist operatives working for UNRWA.

The Israeli foreign ministry told FRANCE 24 that evidence of UNRWA staff involvement includes phone tracking that shows where the employees were on October 7 as well as video footage gathered by the Israeli Defence Forces.

Yet this documentation has not been provided to UN investigators.

“They received some type of evidence to terminate the employees, obviously they would not have done that if they did not receive some type of evidence,” said Joshua Lavine, the spokesperson for the Israeli mission to the UN.

Lavine said that he was “not surprised that there are members of UNRWA who are also members of terror organisations” and that there have been meetings in the past between the Israeli mission and UN officials discussing the issue.

Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan escorted a delegation of nine UN ambassadors to Israel on January 31 where they met with the president, the foreign and defence ministers, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. UNRWA was discussed at length.

In a February 1 briefing, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told the ambassadors that UNRWA had “lost its legitimacy to exist”. Malta’s UN Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, who took part in the delegation, told FRANCE 24 that Gallant told them that UNRWA is “an internationally funded organisation paid to kill Israelis”.

The ambassadors had a clear message for Israel, Frazier said: “Support the SG’s (UN secretary general’s) investigation; anyone involved must be accountable, but the collective punishment only hurts the Gazans more.”

Inquiry will take time

Donors are demanding a speedy inquiry before resuming funding, but UN sources say this could take up to a year.

Former senior OIOS investigator Vladimir Dzuro, who led a major probe into top management UNRWA, said the OIOS aims to complete investigations within six months but that a realistic timeframe is more like six to 12 months, depending on the complexity of the allegations.

“I do not believe that any professional investigation into allegations of this nature, in a quality that is required under the circumstances, could be conducted in four weeks,” Dzuro said, before UNRWA’s funding runs out.

It is also unlikely that UN investigators could conduct a thorough inquiry in an active war zone, he noted.

The OIOS director of investigations, Suzette Schultz, was tight-lipped about the investigation, saying in an email only that her team is “pursuing various avenues of enquiry” and that it has “approached multiple member states that may have information relevant to the investigation”.

Donor nation Norway has refused to cut aid to UNRWA. The country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide urged other donors not to turn their backs on UNRWA, saying: “We should not collectively punish millions of people. We must distinguish between what individuals may have done and what UNRWA stands for.”

Chris Gunness, former chief spokesperson for UNRWA from 2007 to 2020, accused the donors who have frozen funding of “illegally weaponising” UNRWA, thus violating the International Court of Justice ruling calling on Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza and the Genocide Convention itself.

“If these donors have made a decision without cast-iron evidence, they need to be investigated for a move which humanitarian experts say will cause mass starvation,” he said. “It’s time for serious pushback against the dodgy dossier, bad donorship and the betrayal of the UN, UNRWA, its staff and the people of Gaza.”

Gunness noted that the dossier illustrates “perfectly why the donors must ring-fence humanitarian decision-making from politics”.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, an organisation named after Raphael Lemkin, the Polish lawyer of Jewish descent who coined the term “genocide” in 1944, also sounded the alarm on the withdrawal of funds. “This is a serious escalation of the crisis in Gaza and follows the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) first ruling in Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), which many hoped would slow the genocide.”

“It is possible that at least some of the allegations are true. This is why UNRWA’s leadership has reacted swiftly, and an investigation has been launched,” said Matthias Schmale, UNRWA director in Gaza from 2017 to 2021.

“It can also be legitimately asked why these allegations surfaced around the time of the ICJ judgment that, amongst other things, articulated the need for immediate and massive delivery of humanitarian aid, which cannot be done without UNRWA,” he said.

UNRWA in Israel’s crosshairs

Even before October 7, there was a long history of Israel questioning UNRWA’s credibility. And yet Israel relies solely on the UN agency to provide essential services to civilians in Gaza that it might otherwise have to provide itself.

The agency is almost as old as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself. Created by the UN General Assembly in 1949, UNRWA was set up to provide critical social support for Palestinian refugees throughout the Mideast. Its mandate was renewed for another three years by the UN General Assembly in 2023.

Schmale, the former UNRWA director in Gaza, said that despite Hamas’s control of the Gaza Strip since 2007, the group has no involvement in the UN administration in the enclave.

“During my almost four years in Gaza I had to fire only one staff member for direct involvement, as we discovered that he was an active member of the Al-Qassam Brigade,” he said. “This was the exception, not the norm.”

“Hamas de facto authorities are NOT involved in UNRWA’s core services which include education and health,” Schmale said in an email. Hamas leaders “unsurprisingly from time to time make their views known on what UNRWA does and how, and express expectations of what should be conducted differently”.

But Schmale said that, during his time in Gaza, “Hamas mostly respected that it cannot interfere in the running of the Agency, and we were able to conduct our work in conformity with UN standards and norms.”

UNRWA has 30,000 staff, mostly Palestinians, who provide essential services for millions of Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East. In Gaza alone, the agency has played a crucial role, especially since Israel imposed a blockade on the strip when Hamas took over governance in 2007. UNRWA is also the second-biggest employer in Gaza; 80 percent of the population of the 360-square-kilometre enclave relies on humanitarian aid.

Nevertheless, the UN agency has aroused Israeli suspicions.

A copy of a classified report written by Israel’s foreign ministry with a plan to dismantle UNRWA in Gaza in three stages was leaked to Israeli media last month. The first stage involved revealing cooperation between UNRWA and the Hamas movement.

Haiat confirmed the existence of the foreign ministry report but said that it was a “non-paper” that had not been “approved by anyone”.

An earlier Israeli government plan made public in 2017 outlined a process for dissolving UNRWA and transferring its responsibilities to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

When a Palestinian journalist and writer, Yasser Al Banna, who works in Gaza, read the allegations against UNRWA staff, he immediately recalled the leaked foreign ministry report and the 2017 Israeli government plan.

The accusations against UNRWA staff should be “taken in context,” Al Banna said, noting that the accused account for just 0.09 percent of UNRWA employees in Gaza.

“Logically speaking, it is not strange that 12 people out of 13,000 employees [in Gaza] could get involved in illegal activities,” Al Banna said. “Those involved should be punished legally and professionally. We should not punish an entire agency, an entire people.”

Under pressure

Lazzarini is now travelling to Gulf states to seek alternate funding for the agency. Despite facing intense pressure from Israel to resign, his spokesperson said he has no intention of doing so.

“This is a very serious crisis for the United Nations,” Touma acknowledged. “It’s probably one of the largest we’ve had to go through, involving the oldest and one of the most critical agencies of the UN. It’s important that the truth comes out.”

Touma was moved as she recalled her visits to UNRWA schools. “I have seen how they can be a sanctuary for children in a place like Gaza that is riddled with poverty, unemployment, despair, a blockade,” she said.

She described meeting with young teenagers at a “children’s parliament”, an initiative run by UNRWA. It was a place “where refugee children can come together and learn about human rights, critical thinking and how to debunk” falsehoods.

“I ended up cancelling all my other engagements because I enjoyed speaking to these 12-, 13-, 14-year-olds so much,” Touma said. “They told me about their dreams, their hopes, what they want to be. They spoke about their love for Gaza, their dreams to travel, to be like any teenager … and that’s UNRWA.”

This article was produced in collaboration with PassBlue. Damilola Banjo, reporter for PassBlue, contributed reporting.

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Musk’s woes deepen as Tesla strike spreads across Scandinavia

Post By World Denmark, Elon Musk, Europe, Features, Finland, Industry, Norway, sweden, Tesla

Sweden v. Musk

The labour dispute between Tesla and its repair workshop mechanics that originated in Sweden on October 27 has escalated to include Denmark, Finland and Norway. As the stakes rise, Elon Musk’s electric vehicle manufacturer continues to resist signing a collective agreement with its Swedish employees.

Tesla majority-shareholder and CEO Elon Musk faces growing resistance in Scandinavia’s social democracies after refusing to sign a collective agreement determining the minimum wage of his employees.

The dispute, which initially involved only 130 mechanics at ten Tesla repair workshops across seven Swedish cities, has ballooned into an international strike movement.

“The mistake [American multinational] Tesla made was challenging the collective agreements that set sector-specific minimum wages in Sweden, a country where 70% of the population is unionised, compared with only 8% of private sector workers in France,” says Yohann Aucante, a political scientist and Scandinavia specialist at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris.

Concerned about safeguarding collective agreements, which cover nearly 90% of all employees in Sweden, 15 Swedish unions have joined the strike at the request of the powerful IF Metall union since it kicked off on October 27.

Transporters are refusing to deliver vehicles while electricians are declining to repair charging stations. Cleaning staff have stopped cleaning showrooms, garbage is piling up outside Tesla centres as refuse collectors refuse to pick it up, and the Swedish postal service has stopped delivering license plates essential for registering new Teslas.

On the retail end of the supply chain, car dealerships have stopped offering Teslas and Stockholm taxis have suspended their Tesla purchases.

Neighbours join fight

Far from stopping in Sweden, the “sympathy strike” has spread to the country’s Nordic cousins who also see Tesla’s ambitions as threatening their labour models.

“There are also strong collective agreements and unions in Norway, especially in Denmark, where these agreements determine the majority of labour law,” says Aucante. “Therefore, Norwegians and Danes are keen on this model which gives unions some negotiating power against employers.”

After Denmark’s largest union, 3F, declared a solidarity strike with Swedish workers on December 5, Norway’s largest private sector union warned on December 6 that it would block the transit of Tesla cars to Sweden if the American automaker did not reach an agreement with its Swedish workers by December 20.

The following day, the Finnish transport workers’ union AKT offered the same pledge. “It is a crucial part of the Nordic labour market model that we have collective agreements and unions support each other,” AKT president Ismo Kokko said in a statement.

International sympathy strikes are rare, but not unprecedented says Aucante. The last major mobilisation dates back to 1995 when the American toy company Toys “R” Us tried to bypass unions and impose its own salary rules. The retailer eventually yielded after three months of strikes in Sweden and Europe.

Musk outraged

The revolt has provoked outrage from Musk who described the industrial action as “insane” on his social network, X, on November 23.

In response, Tesla filed a request to compel the Swedish postal operator to deliver the license plates and sought compensation for a loss of over €87,000. However, its prosecution request was rejected on December 7 by a Swedish court.

The carmaker is now actively seeking a government affairs specialist in Sweden to help resolve the issue. A job listing posted recently on the Tesla careers website shows the company is looking for someone with a “proven track record of getting regulatory changes made in the Nordics”.

Nordic investors ‘deeply concerned’

Another, more serious threat to Musk is a group of powerful pension funds in the region which have begun criticising Tesla’s conduct.

A group of Nordic investors, which include Norway‘s largest pension fund KLP, Sweden’s Folksam and Denmark‘s PFA, defended the Swedish labour market model in a letter sent to Tesla on Thursday, saying they are “deeply concerned” about the situation.

“We as Nordic investors acknowledge the decade-old tradition of collective bargaining, and therefore urge Tesla to reconsider your current approach to unions,” the letter reads.

The investor letter also asks for a meeting with Tesla’s board in early 2024 to discuss the matter.

Some funds, acting individually, have gone further in their critique. Kiran Aziz, head of responsible investments at KLP, which holds around €195 million in Tesla shares, said it’s not “just about the labour model in the Nordic but about fundamental human rights”.

In Denmark, the pension fund PensionDanmark has decided it’s already seen enough. It sold its 476 million Danish crowns (€64 million) in Tesla holdings on December 7.

The Norges Bank Investment Bank (NBIM), which operates the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund and is the seventh-largest Tesla shareholder with a stake of around €6.3 billion, did not sign on to the letter. However, it declared last week that it would continue to pressure the company to respect labour rights, such as collective bargaining.

A blow to branding

For Tesla, the stakes are high. “As Scandinavians are the leading consumers of Tesla in Europe, the company has no interest in prolonging a conflict that will severely damage its image,” says Aucante, who believes Tesla will have to make concessions.

“With the trend towards greening economies, it’s ‘bad form’ to produce cars in China when building an electric car aimed at reducing carbon impact,” adds Aucante. “That’s why Tesla is trying to bring back some of its production to Europe, but labour costs are not the same, and there are more regulations here.”

While the strike currently affects only northern European countries, there is speculation it could inspire the 11,000 employees at Tesla’s largest European operation, the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg.

German employees secured a 4% salary increase in early November as a result of pressure from German unions – a concession which could be linked to the fear of the strike in Nordic countries migrating south, according to the Washington Post.

Across the Atlantic, Tesla workers have yet to unionise. However, after the United Auto Workers (UAW) successfully negotiated deals with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis in November, Tesla is likely worried about unions back home, too.

This article was translated from the original in French.

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#Musks #woes #deepen #Tesla #strike #spreads #Scandinavia

From Argentina to Zambia, the A-Z of how fans are celebrating the Women’s World Cup

Post By World argentina, Australia, brazil, Canada, Cup, football, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, new zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Portugal, Soccer, South Korea, women's, World, Zambia

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It runs in my blood. That’s the common catchcry from fans all around Australia, who reflect on what it means to them to see their country perform at a FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Chicken, beer, and South Korean football

Employees at the Korean Cultural Centre in Sydney are excited to support the women’s team.(ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

A roar emerges from inside a replica of a traditional Korean hanok, or house.

Employees from the Korean Cultural Centre in Sydney give a taste of the noise they’ll be generating during the Women’s World Cup as they support their country.

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Jenny Chung was born in South Korea, but grew up in Australia, and looks after events and concerts at the centre.

“Even though I’ve lived in Australia for most of my life, I would call Korea my home,” she says.

Jenny Chung, Jihee Kim, and Joanne Tae will be attending some of South Korea’s matches. (ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

“I think a lot of people feel the same way that have been living in Australia for a long time. They feel like Korea is closer to them.

“So every time we have a match like this, we go to a pub and we have chicken and beer, and we watch the tournaments together.”

The Korean Cultural Centre in Sydney runs K-Pop dance classes.(ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

Joanne Tae is proud to support her team.(ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

Kate Minji Jung is the manager of education and literature at the Korean Cultural Centre, Sydney.(ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

Joanne Tae is the Korean language program manager.

“Hopefully they’ll get to the finals and win the Women’s World Cup,” she says.

“But even if they don’t, we’ll be definitely proud of our players.”

General Manager of the Korean Cultural Centre, Inji Jung, in a traditional Korean hanok. (ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

J-League star gets behind Japan’s women

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As a former J-League star, Kentaroh Ohi knows how much football means to the Japanese public.

A junior national representative, Ohi went on to make 483 appearances with three different clubs between 2003-2022, before crossing to Australia in 2023 to represent the Eastern Lions in Victoria.

During a World Cup, Ohi says, it is common for families to “wake up at all hours”, glued to the TV as they cheer on the Japanese national team.

Former J-League player Kentaro Ohi is excited to follow the Japanese women’s team at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.(ABC News: Simon Tucci)

“It’s an amazing atmosphere,” he says.

“Everyone’s up and about.”

After the Japanese women’s team won the World Cup as underdogs in 2011, the country “went crazy”, he says.

“As soon as they won, the popularity [of women’s football] just skyrocketed in Japan,” Ohi says.

Some of those players also went on to become television celebrities.

Kentaroh Ohi played over 400 J-League games in Japan.(ABC News: Simon Tucci)

Knick knacks inside Paprica Japanese restaurant in Melbourne.(ABC News: Simon Tucci)

Paprica is run by Japanese football fans.(ABC News: Simon Tucci)

Watching women’s sport grow in Aotearoa New Zealand

Kiana Takairangi and Harata Butler hope the Women’s World Cup can elevate all women’s sport in Aotearoa New Zealand.(ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

Kiana Takairangi and Harata Butler play in the NRLW for the Cronulla Sharks, but when it comes to the World Cup, they’re ditching the code wars, to support their fellow female athletes.

“I’m a big fan of it myself, the more exposure, the more recognition that we get as female athletes, it’s really great for women’s sport in general,” Takairangi says.

“I feel like I’m in a privileged position to witness women’s sports, women athletes being recognised on an international stage,” Butler adds.

“Being hosted in our little part of the world for our girls to see women striving and achieving and reaching the goals and their dreams to be an athlete. It’s really massive.”

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Harata Butler’s Tā moko represents her family’s ancestry.(ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

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Takairangi was born in Australia, and has Cook Islands and Māori heritage, while Butler is from the North Island in Aotearoa.

“To me, being Māori is my identity,” Butler says.

“It runs in my blood, it holds me grounded, wherever I go in the world, whether that is at home, on home soil, or afar, like here in Australia, it keeps me in tact with my spirituality, my beliefs and my cultural practices.”

Harata Butler plays for the Cronulla Sharks NRLW team. (ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

Small, but loud and rowdy Panamanians

The Altamiranda family are proud of their Panamanian heritage.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

There are only 300 people born in Panama who live in Australia, including the Altamiranda family.

Andrewfer Altamiranda is the youngest of three boys — the only one of his siblings born in Australia — but his love for Panama, and especially football, runs deep.

“[My family has] been embedding the culture and the customs of the country in me since birth,” he says.

“And that’s how I’m close to Panama, and I’m passionate about my country’s heritage.

“[Panamanians are] very loud and rowdy. We’re very passionate about the culture, the music, the food.

“And once we find someone from Panama as well it’s an instant connection, like a brotherhood or sisterhood.”

Andrewfer Altamiranda plays a Panamanian drum.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Andrewfer’s mother, Sofia, her husband and two oldest children came to Australia to escape the dictatorship of Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno.

“We came to this wonderful and beautiful country to make them happy, better life for all of us,” she says.

“We still have [Panama] in our blood. The first time Panama [plays] in this event, it’s wonderful for us to give a lot of support to them.”

The Altamiranda family prepare dinner, while sharing their thoughts about the Women’s World Cup.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Dayal Ortiz is excited to see Panama’s women on the world stage.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

The Panama women’s team have proven themselves equal to the men by making it to the big stage.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Andrewfer’s wife, Dayal Ortiz, has only been living in Australia for a few years, and seeing Panama’s women here means a lot.

“We’re going to support [them] because they have done a magnificent job.

“They need to have fun, enjoy. I hope after this they receive all the support for the government that they need to.”

Andrewfer Altamiranda was born in Australia but is passionate about supporting Panama.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Jamaica punches above its weight

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Ranked 43rd in the world, Jamaica punches well above the weight of its just 2.8 million population, qualifying for the two most recent tournaments.

Roderick Grant, a former professional player who now runs a Jamaican food truck business, moved to Australia when he was 15.

He sees the tournament as a new opportunity to inspire young girls to take up the sport.

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“It’s going to be excellent because Jamaica is so isolated as a small island,” he says.

“It’ll be a great motivator for the young girls to focus in on something and show that it can be achieved. It’s just hard work and dedication.”

Roderick knows first-hand how ingrained football is in Jamaican life, having gone on to represent his family worldwide.

Ranked 43rd in the world, Jamaica will be hoping to advance past the group stage for the first time at a FIFA Women’s World Cup.(ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

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Roderick Grant knows first-hand how ingrained football is in Jamaican life.(ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

Roderick Grant found a balance between playing football and bringing Jamaican cuisine to Australian.(ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

“Football, man, it’s one of those things growing up in Jamaica, you finish school, go home and get changed, straight to the football field in the evening,” he says.

“It’s not even to play as a club, it’s just to play with your friends, your mates, and everyone just pulls teams together. It’s a big part of what we do in Jamaica.”

Football part of Norwegian identity

Sebastian Grøgaard (centre) says football is a central part of Norwegian life. (ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

At a celebration for Norway’s ‘Constitution Day’, Norwegian ex-pats get together to celebrate.

“It was the day that the constitution was signed back in 1814, and it’s also known as the Children’s Day,” says one of the attendees, Bente Ryan.

Norwegian Constitution Day is also known as Children’s Day.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

There are many proud Norwegians in Australia.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Traditional Norwegian food.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Norwegian Constitution Day is a time for socialising.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

“So in Norway people will gather in towns and have parades, national costumes, flags, brass bands, lots of ice cream, lots of hotdogs. And it’s a whole lot of fun.”

Amongst the group is Håvard T. Osland, the Norwegian Chaplain to Australia and New Zealand, mainly working as a university chaplain for Norwegian international students.

“It’s always exciting when your national team is doing really well, and football definitely is a big sport in Scandinavia,” he says.

“So it really is one of the things that connects us, and is part of our DNA and our identity.”

Chocolate cake brings a smile at the Norwegian Constitution Day.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Traditional Norwegian outfits.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

The Norwegian colours.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Traditions are celebrated by Norwegians.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Generations of Italians share joy together

The Raspoli and Pafralis family say football runs in the blood, with everyone playing locally or watching the national team.(ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

For generations, family has meant everything to Carmela Rispoli, who moved to Australia in the 1960s and raised four children.

As Italian-Australians, her daughter Philomena Pafralis and granddaughter Natalie Pafralis know when they come together and watch or play, it’s always special.

Italian-Australian mother and daughter, Philomena Pafralis (left) and Natalie Pafralis (right) love to watch Italy play.(ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

“It’s just beautiful to get together with the family,” Philomena says.

She was born in Italy and moved to Australia at just one year of age.

Italian nonna Carmela Rispoli (centre) moved to Australia in the 1960s, raising four children including Philomena Pafralis (left), and third-generation Natalie Pafralis (right).(ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

As for Natalie, there was really no other option, being born into an Italian family and raised in Australia.

“If I didn’t want to do it I didn’t have a choice. I was playing all my life, all my childhood,” she says.

And after all – “Italy has to win because they’re the best in the world,” Carmela cries in Italian.

Portuguese community linked by football

As soon as you walk into the grounds of Fraser Park FC in Sydney’s inner-west, the melodic sounds of an accordion ring throughout the area.

Members of Sydney’s Portugal Community Club are enjoying a meal and listening to the traditional music, while on the football field next door, the senior men’s team is preparing to play.

A man plays an accordion at Sydney’s Portugal Community Club.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Fraser Park FC in Sydney’s inner-west is connected to the Sydney Portugal Community Club.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

David Palma used to play for Fraser Park FC, and is now a supporter.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)

Football and community are inseparable here.

Andrew Alves was born in Australia, after his parents migrated from Portugal. He used to play for Fraser Park, but now supports the team from the sidelines.

“It’s always been a massive part, the Portuguese community here, and has been for many years,” he says.

His niece, 13-year-old Annabella Vasconcelos, plays football, and is amongst the generation of players watching the tournament and being inspired.

“[I’m] more excited than to have the men’s World Cup here,” she says.

The glue that binds Argentines in Australia

Argentines in Australia are still on a high after the men’s team won last year’s World Cup in Qatar.(ABC Sport: Evan Morgan Grahame)

“The women’s World Cup means a lot to Argentinians,” says Alfredo Couceiro of Melbourne City Football Club, based in South Kingsville, Victoria.

This is especially the case, he adds, for those like him who have relocated to Australia.

“Even if you migrate to another country, your heart is beating for Argentina,” adds fellow Argentinian Melissa Gugliara.

“Football is born into you [as an Argentinian].

“It’s in your veins, it’s in your blood.

“You love it, you become passionate.”

Argentina fans at a fan day in Melbourne.(ABC Sport: Evan Morgan Grahame)

Cristian Emanuel Mansilla adds that football is the glue that binds Argentinian migrants.

“We are always trying to connect with other Argentinian people within our community,” he says.

“[With football], we are together the whole time. It’s why we love it; hugging, supporting, singing together.”

Even pets are roped in to support the team.(ABC Sport: Evan Morgan Grahame)

Brazilian football ‘like a religion’

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No one does football like Brazil, with some of the most passionate supporters and best players in the world.

When Adilson Andrade de Melo Júnior moved to Australia, he knew there was a spread of sports compared to back home in Brazil.

“It’s hard to explain … in Brazil when you talk about football, soccer, it’s part of the culture. It’s a religion in a way,” he says.

Brazilian supporter Adilson Andrade de Melo Júnior performs on drums and other instruments at any match he can attend when they’re playing in Australia.(ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

“Everyone follows, every four years we stop for this magnificent event.

“Whenever Brazil comes here, myself and a couple of other friends, we get together trying to organise tickets for everyone and being close to each other.

“Last game that Brazil had here we probably had over 300 people sitting together cheering, which was an amazing atmosphere.”

Zambia’s Copper Queens inspiring a nation

Dr Elias Munshya is Zambia’s High Commissioner to Australia and New Zealand.(ABC News: Nicholas Haggarty)

Zambia is one of eight countries making its tournament debut, and no one is more excited to sing their praises than the country’s High Commissioner for Australia and New Zealand, Dr Elias Munshya.

“It’s a huge, huge time for us,” he says.

“It’s amazing just to see the impact that this qualification of Zambia National Women’s [team] has had on young girls in Zambia.

“These players have inspired a whole generation of young girls that believe in themselves, that they believe they can achieve, that are fighting for equality, that are fighting for equity.”

Nigerians use sport as a form of survival

As Africa’s top-ranked nation, Nigeria’s women’s national team has plenty of support, including from Toyin Abbas.

“From day one, we embedded with soccer because we were colonised by Britain,” he says.

“It’s one of the reasons people play sports in Africa.”

As he knows well as a former professional player, Toyin played football, just as the Super Falcons players do so across the globe.

“People started to see soccer as a form of survival. Like you want to earn a living and it’s tough for some families, it’s very tough for some individuals.

There’s plenty of support from Melbourne’s Nigerian community with sport being a way to make a living for some players.(ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

“It unifies relations, the people, it binds people together.”

Nigerian supporter, Toyin Abbas says the Super Falcons can win it all at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.(ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

The Super Falcons are 11-time champions at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament, but have never made it past the quarter-finals at a World Cup in nine attempts.(ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

As Toyin says, the Super Falcons players will have success if they stay tactically disciplined together.

“We’re going to win the trophy, I will tell you,” he says.

“The Nigerian team, we have what it takes, we can be world beaters.”

Canada to ‘knock people’s socks off’

Stacey, Dylan, and their boys come from Edmonton, Canada.(ABC News: Ruth Assefa Brook)

Stacey, Dylan and their three boys hail from Edmonton, Alberta.

They’re a long way from home but their Canadian national pride is never far away.

“We’re really, really proud. I think they have a really good chance of winning, [we’re] really hopeful, we will be cheering them on,” Stacey says

Rod Johns is the president of the Canada Club in Melbourne.(ABC News: Ruth Assefa Brook)

Equally ecstatic is Rod Johns, president of the Canada Club in Melbourne.

“I think it’s great that they’re coming because the girls don’t get enough exposure, it’s good for soccer in Australia, and it’s good for women’s sports in general, Mr Johns said.

“Based on their pre-performance I think they’ll knock some people’s socks off, they should do very well.”

Credits

Reporting: Amanda Shalala, Damien Peck, Kate O’Halloran, Ruth Assefa Brook
Photography: Amanda Shalala, Brendan Esposito, Damien Peck, Evan Morgan Grahame, Simon Tucci, Ruth Assefa Brook, Nicholas Haggarty, Kate O’Halloran
Video: Amanda Shalala , Damien Peck, Simon Tucci, Ruth Assefa Brook, Nicholas Haggarty, Geoff Kemp, Adam Griffiths, Sean Warren
Editing and production: Johanna McDiarmid, Amanda Shalala, Damien Peck

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#Argentina #Zambia #fans #celebrating #Womens #World #Cup

You’re up, Joe: Europe awaits Biden’s nod on next NATO chief

Post By Politics Aid and development, Ben Wallace, Defense, Denmark, Elections, Jens Stoltenberg, Joe Biden, Kaja Kallas, Markets, Mette Frederiksen, military, nato, NATO Summit, Norway, Pedro Sánchez, sweden, turkey, Ukraine, United States

Europe is waiting for white smoke from Washington.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will visit the White House on Tuesday, part of a trip that could determine whether he stays on at the helm of the Western military alliance or if the U.S. will back a new candidate.

For months now, Europe has been locked in an endless parlor game over who might replace Stoltenberg, who is slated to leave his already-extended term in September after nearly 10 years at the helm.

Candidates have risen, fallen and risen again, while some desired successors have repeatedly proclaimed themselves not interested. Diplomats at NATO headquarters in Brussels will put forth one theory, only to offer a different one in the next sentence.

Throughout it all, the U.S. has stayed noticeably mum on the subject, merely indicating President Joe Biden hasn’t settled on a candidate and effusively praising Stoltenberg’s work. Yet Biden can’t sit on the fence forever. While the NATO chief is technically chosen by consensus, the White House’s endorsement carries heavy weight.

The foot-dragging has left NATO in limbo: while some members say it’s high time for a fresh face, the NATO job — traditionally reserved for a European — has become highly sensitive. There are few senior European leaders who are both available and can win the backing of all 31 alliance members for the high-profile post.

The result is that all eyes have turned to Washington as the clock ticks down to NATO’s annual summit in July — a sort of deadline for the alliance to make a decision on its next (or extended) leader.

“I would not be 100 percent sure that the list is closed,” said one senior diplomat from Central Europe, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss alliance dynamics. “There might be,” the diplomat added, “a last-minute extension initiative.”

Shadow contest

Diplomats are divided on what will happen in the NATO leadership sweepstakes.

While many candidates still insist they are not in the running — and Stoltenberg has repeatedly said he plans to go home to Norway, where he was prime minister — all options appear to remain on the table.

In recent days, the two possible contenders mentioned most often in diplomatic circles are Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.

Frederiksen met with Biden at the White House last week, turbocharging speculation about her future. As a female leader from a European Union country that is a strong Ukraine supporter but not a full-on hawk, the Danish leader checks off many boxes for some of the alliance’s most influential members.

Yet speaking to reporters in Washington, she insisted, “I am not a candidate for any other job than the one I have now, and this has not changed after my meeting with the U.S. president.”

In NATO circles, however, the narrative is different. Four European diplomats said Frederiksen’s name is still circulating as a serious contender for the post.

Still, Frederiksen faces challenges: Denmark already had the top NATO job less than a decade ago. And not everyone is totally enthusiastic.

“The Turks might want to block the Danish candidate,” said the senior Central European diplomat. “There is some distance to this idea (not to Frederiksen personally) also elsewhere in the east and in the south, and some of those countries might even join a potential blockade.”

Turkey summoned the Danish envoy in Ankara earlier this year after a far-right group burned a Quran and Turkish flag in Copenhagen. More broadly, the Turkish government has taken issue with a number of northern European countries and is still blocking Sweden’s NATO accession bid.

Asked about possible opposition to the Danish leader from Ankara, however, a Turkish official said: “It is gossip, period. We have never been asked about her candidacy!”

Britain’s Wallace, on the other hand, has openly expressed interest in the NATO job.

But he faces an uphill battle. Many allies would prefer to see a former head of government in the role. And some EU capitals have signaled they would oppose a non-EU candidate.

Asked last week if it’s time for a British secretary-general, Biden was lukewarm.

“Maybe. That remains to be seen,” the president said. “We’re going to have to get a consensus within NATO to see that happen. They have a candidate who’s a very qualified individual. But we’re going to have — we have a lot of discussion, not between us, but in NATO, to determine what the outcome of that will be.”

A number of other names — including Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Spanish leader Pedro Sánchez — are still occasionally mentioned, although less frequently. Sánchez, for his part, could soon be in the market for a new job as he faces a tough election in July.

Some diplomats simply aren’t crazy about any of the leading options.

“I don’t feel it,” said a senior NATO diplomat, also speaking anonymously to discuss internal deliberations. The diplomat argued the “most likely” scenario is yet another short extension for Stoltenberg and a need to then “refresh” the list of candidates.

The senior diplomat from Central Europe argued that “the EU core” — some of the bloc’s most influential capitals — might be in favor of an extension that would sync up the NATO chief talks with the EU’s upcoming leadership reshuffle after the EU’s June 2024 elections. Combining the two could open the door to more political horse trading.

But asked last month about his future, Stoltenberg said: “I have made it clear that I have no other plans than to leave this fall. I will already have been almost twice as long as originally planned.”

Others insisted they remained upbeat about the names on the table.

Both Frederiksen and Wallace, said one senior northern European diplomat, “seem well qualified.”

A senior diplomat from Eastern Europe bet on a new NATO chief soon.

“I think,” the diplomat said, “we are moving closer to the replacement than extension.”

Eli Stokols contributed reporting.

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Norway faces backlash from campaigners for ‘reckless’ pursuit of Arctic oil and gas

Post By Oil and Gas arctic, business news, Energy, Norway, Norway government, Oil and Gas, Russia, Ukraine

A view of fjords as they melt due to climate change near Svalbard Islands, in the Arctic Ocean in Norway on July 19, 2022.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The Norwegian government is calling on energy giants to ramp up oil and gas exploration projects in remote regions like the Arctic Barents Sea, defying a sense of palpable frustration among climate campaigners as the Nordic country seeks to shore up its position as Europe’s largest gas supplier.

The rethink in strategy comes as Norway strives to keep up with growing demand for its energy exports in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Norway last year overtook Russia as Europe’s biggest natural gas supplier and says it is now seeking to maintain Europe’s energy security by exploring the Barents Sea for further resources.

Speaking in the town of Hammerfest late last month, Norway’s Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland reportedly said that the industry should “leave no stone unturned” in their pursuit for fresh hydrocarbon discoveries in the Barents Sea.

Aasland even described this policy as the oil and gas industry’s “social responsibility,” according to Bloomberg, saying undiscovered resources could help to maintain the country’s future production levels.

Norway oil and gas giant Equinor and Vår Energi, one of the country’s largest exploration and production companies, confirmed to CNBC that the minister recently issued this call.

A spokesperson for Norway’s petroleum and energy ministry, meanwhile, said that the message to energy giants was “to explore all economic oil and gas resources within the available areas, including in the Barents Sea.”

Norway has pumped oil and gas from its continental shelf, a relatively shallow section of seabed off its coast, for more than 50 years and it currently has several oil and gas fields either in production or under development.

Oil drilling in the Arctic is like pouring gasoline on a fire.

Frode Pleym

Head of Greenpeace Norway

It is estimated that roughly two-thirds of the country’s undiscovered oil resources lies off the country’s northern coast in the Arctic’s Barents Sea. And yet, the desire among energy companies to explore the Barents Sea for oil and gas has been relatively subdued in recent years, in part due to high costs and limited opportunities to export gas to markets.

At the start of the year, however, Norway said it planned to offer energy firms a record number of oil and gas exploration blocks in the Arctic.

Environmental campaigners at Friends of the Earth Norway, WWF-Norway and Greenpeace Norway have described the country’s lobbying for continued oil and gas expansion as “embarrassing,” “extremely reckless” and “a middle finger to the Paris Agreement.”

“Oil drilling in the Arctic is like pouring gasoline on a fire,” Frode Pleym, head of Greenpeace Norway, told CNBC via email.

“Both Norway and the oil corporations need to stop cynically exploiting Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Pleym said. “The aggressive and greedy oil policy of Norway do not only consolidate Oslo’s position as a top energy supplier to Europe, it locks a whole continent into future dependency on fossil fuels. The alternative to oil and gas is not more oil and gas, it is more energy efficiency and renewable energy.”

The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, is the chief driver of the climate crisis.

‘We want to explore for more’

Norway has been one of the world’s top crude producers for the past half-century thanks to its gigantic North Sea petroleum deposits — the spoils of which have been used to provide a robust safety net for current and future generations.

Oil and gas companies believe the Barents Sea can play an important role in ensuring the long-term market access for gas, noting the development of the resources in this area should fit within the EU’s Arctic policy.

A spokesperson for Equinor told CNBC that the company hoped to see “new attractive acreage in the Barents Sea.” They added, “we want to explore for more and we think we will find more.”

Responding to the environmental concerns of Arctic oil and gas drilling, a spokerson at Equinor said, “We have a long track record of offshore operations in harsh environments with high standards on safety, security and sustainability.”

“We know the Barents region well and work together with the authorities to plan and execute our operations in a sustainable way with as little as possible impact on the environment.”

A LNG ship is pictured at the island Melkoya where Norwegian energy giant Equinor has built a facility for receiving and processing natural gas from the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea.

Fredrik Varfjell | Afp | Getty Images

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the government agency responsible for the regulation of petroleum resources, recently lamented the lack of exploration in the Barents Sea, saying its calculations show that such activity “is profitable in all ocean areas.”

Separately, a mid-April study from gas infrastructure operator Gassco said building a pipeline to transport gas produced in the Arctic Barents Sea could be worth re-examining due to the country stepping up its gas exports to Europe.

A spokesperson for Vår Energi described the Barents Sea as a strategic hub for oil and gas drilling, one that provides a “manageable, ice-free” part of the Arctic with weather and climate conditions like other parts of the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

It is for this reason, Vår Energi says, that the Barents Sea should not be compared to other Arctic regions characterized by harsher conditions, adding that the company abides by strict environmental regulations.

Climate campaign groups refute this logic, warning that any oil spill in this area would spell disaster to the rich but acutely vulnerable ecosystems and marine life.

‘A strong basis to lead on climate policy’

“Russia’s war against Ukraine does not justify a further push for Arctic oil and gas, as it can take around 15 years to go from exploration to production,” Truls Gulowsen, leader of Friends of the Earth Norway, told CNBC.

“Norway is making a huge profit off energy prices in Europe and few countries have such a strong basis to lead on climate policy,” Gulowsen said.

Ragnhild Waagaard, climate and energy lead in WWF-Norway, said it is understandable governments want to address the energy crisis and high energy costs causing real hardship for many people but warned that doubling down on fossil fuels will not help.

“Countries should rapidly boost their uptake of renewable energy, increase energy efficiency and reduce demand for energy. The choices we make now, and the way governments respond to the evolving energy crisis, will determine whether we succeed or fail,” Waagaard said.

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#Norway #faces #backlash #campaigners #reckless #pursuit #Arctic #oil #gas

Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway: We Train Workers in Cultural Competence, Says Embassy

Post By Fact Check child welfare service, Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway, Norway, norwegian embassy, rani mukherjee, sagarika chakraborty, The Royal Norwegian Embassy

After Rani Mukherjee-starrer Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway was released across theatres in Indian on Friday, 17 March, the Norwegian Ambassador Hans Jacob Frydenlund came out with a statement against the movie, alleging that “it incorrectly depicts Norway’s belief in family life and our respect for different cultures.”

In a tweet, he said: “Child welfare is a matter of great responsibility, never motivated by payments or profit.”

My Op-Ed in @IndianExpress today about the film #MrsChatterjeeVsNorway. It incorrectly depicts Norway’s belief in family life and our respect for different cultures. Child welfare is a matter of great responsibility, never motivated by payments or profit. #Norwaycares pic.twitter.com/FpVWmdLv5h

— Ambassador Hans Jacob Frydenlund (@NorwayAmbIndia) March 17, 2023

Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway is inspired by the story of Sagarika Chakraborty, whose two children were separated from her by the Norwegian Child Welfare Service in 2011, allegedly due to cultural differences.

Responding to his allegation, Sagarika said: “I condemn the false statement by the Norwegian ambassador in the papers today… Till today, they have not apologised for the racism of their care workers. They destroyed my life and my reputation, traumatised my children, and supported my husband when he was cruel to me and they call themselves a feminist country.”

As the debate grows louder, The Quint reached out to The Royal Norwegian Embassy about the allegations raised in the film. The spokesperson of the embassy, Manu Arya, responded to us via email. This what they had to say:

The film ‘Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway‘ shows Norwegian officials as insensitive towards cultures of other countries. In real life, how does Norway strive towards ensuring inclusivity and cultural sensitivity among its officials?

Cultural competence and the importance of considering the child and the parents’ cultural and religious background are stressed throughout the legal framework of Norway’s Child Welfare Service, and in the recommendations and guidelines that follow from it.

To enable case workers in the Child Welfare Service to fulfill these obligations, there is a focus on cultural competence in different training programmes.

Among other things, cultural competence and sensitivity is made an obligatory part of the Master’s degrees offered in Norway in child welfare and child welfare work.

The film shows the Child Welfare Service taking away the kids without informing their parents. What is the process behind removing kids from their households?

An emergency order can be made by the leader of the local Child Welfare Service or the prosecuting authorities only if there is a risk that a child will suffer material harm if a care order is not carried out immediately. That is important to underline.

Moving a child out of the home as an emergency measure shall only be done when there are no other means to protect the child.

When a child is moved following an emergency order, it is important for the Child Welfare Service to also tend to the parents of the child, including providing them with information on the background for why the child is being moved and their rights following the emergency order.

The service is obligated by law to provide such information to the parents, and, as previously stated, to co-operate with them. Such co-operation, regardless of the obligation, will most often be deemed as in the best interest of the child.

The Child Welfare Service should assess if the parents need assistance or follow-up from the service itself or other services following an emergency move, and, if needed, help the parents contact such services.

An emergency order must be brought before the Child Welfare Tribunal within 48 hours after it was made, for approval or rejection.

Since 2015, the Child Welfare Service has been accused of a lack of relevant evaluations and ignoring cultural differences while making decisions regarding ‘child removal’. What has Norway done to ensure that miscalculations don’t happen based on ‘cultural differences’?

The Child Welfare Service is obligated by law to take into account the child’s ethnical, cultural, linguistic, and religious background at all stages of a child welfare case. This is underlined in a new Section in the new Child Welfare Act (Section 1-8), which entered into force 1 January 2023, in order to emphasise the importance of this aspect.

In the previous Child Welfare Act, too, there were several provisions to ensure that children’s cultural, linguistic, and religious background were taken into account.

To enable case workers in the Child Welfare Service to fulfill these obligations, there is a focus on cultural competence in different training programmes.

If kids are taken away, does the family have an avenue to file an appeal? What about families who don’t have disposable income?

Immediately after an emergency order is effectuated, it must be sent to the Child Welfare Tribunal for approval. The tribunal is an impartial and independent decision-making authority chaired by a judge.

The parents are free to choose whomever lawyer they wish to represent them. However, if the parents have not already hired one, the tribunal shall make sure that a lawyer is appointed for them. The government pays the lawyers fees, regardless of the choice of lawyer.

This follows from the Child Welfare Act Section 14-7 and the Act relating to free legal aid Section 17. Norwegian authorities will, under no circumstance, intervene in the parent’s choice of lawyer on the basis of the lawyer doing too good a job, as insinuated in the movie.

The above mentioned relates to emergency orders. If a child is removed from its parents after a care order has been made, the same right to appeal and to free legal aid applies.

A report (by a journalist) alleged that children with a foreign mother are four times more likely than other children in Norway to be forcibly removed from their families. Is there any merit to these allegations?

An analysis of the background of the children in public care at the end of 2021, carried out by Statistics Norway, shows that this is not the case.

There have been many such cases in the past, and social workers have been accused of being too quick to separate children from their families with little justification, particularly when parents are immigrants. What is being done about this?

As stated above, even though the leader of the Child Welfare Service has the power to make an emergency order, effectuation of such an order must always be followed by an approval by the Child Welfare Tribunal, or the order will lapse.

The parents can appeal an approval, and, if the order is still upheld, bring the case before the District Court for review.

If the Child Welfare Service assesses that further measures are necessary, the service must, as soon as possible and within six weeks after the emergency order is made, file for a care order.

The case is processed in an independent Child Welfare Tribunal, where the proceedings are similar to those in the courts. The tribunal’s decision regarding a care order can also be brought before the District Court for review.

Assessing when it is necessary to make an emergency move of a child in order to protect the child from material harm is, and will always be, a challenging exercise. It is an ongoing work to develop standards on how the Child Welfare Service handles emergency cases, that ensures that the service, if necessary, intervenes at the right time.

In addition to the obligations to consider the child and the parents cultural and religious background throughout a case, both a guideline for the Child Welfare Service work as a whole, and a specific guideline for emergency moves have been developed in recent years. The guidelines are developed on the basis of up-to date knowledge in the field.

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#Chatterjee #Norway #Train #Workers #Cultural #Competence #Embassy

Norway’s fossil fuel bonanza stokes impassioned debate about how best to spend its ‘war profits’

Post By Oil and Gas business news, Energy, Norway, Norway government, Oil and Gas, Oslo, politics, Russia, Ukraine

Norway is making more money from oil and gas exports than ever.

Ole Berg-rusten | Afp | Getty Images

Norway’s skyrocketing oil and gas wealth is expected to climb to new heights this year, boosted by higher fossil fuel prices in the wake of Russia’s nearly year-long onslaught in Ukraine.

The ballooning petroleum profits of the Scandinavian country put Oslo in a unique position: As many in Europe are struggling to cope with the region’s worst energy crisis in decades, Norway — already extremely rich — is getting richer still.

It has ignited an impassioned debate about international justice, with many questioning whether it is fair for Norway to rake in record oil and gas revenues at the expense of others’ misfortune.

Opposition lawmakers, prominent economists in the country, and even titans of Norway’s energy industry have called on the government to set an example to the world by pumping its fossil fuel revenues into a new international solidarity fund that helps countries meet their climate goals.

Norway’s Finance Ministry expects the state’s revenues from oil and gas sales to climb to 1.38 trillion Norwegian krone ($131 billion) this year. That’s up from a previous record of 1.17 trillion krone last year, and a nearly fivefold increase from 288 billion krone in 2021.

“They are war profits,” Lars-Henrik Paarup Michelsen, director of the Norwegian Climate Foundation think tank, told CNBC via telephone.

“Most European countries are getting poorer because of the war. Norway is getting richer — much richer.”

Opposition lawmakers, prominent economists and even titans of Norway’s energy industry have called on Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store’s government to set an example to the world by pumping at least some of its fossil fuel revenues into a new international solidarity fund.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Michelsen said he was fearful that by choosing to pocket its bumper oil and gas profits, Norway is damaging its international reputation, warning that the country is at risk of being perceived as “very egocentric.”

“We are in a completely different position than the rest of Europe and I think, with that, it also bears a responsibility,” Michelsen said. He called for the government to redirect its extraordinary windfall to further help Ukraine, accelerate Europe’s energy transition and provide climate finance for low-income countries.

“This situation is certainly not of our making and not to our liking,” Norway’s Deputy Foreign Minister Eivind Vad Petersson told CNBC via telephone. He argued that it is critically important for Europe’s energy security that Norway keeps gas production high.

Petersson said the government’s financial support to Ukraine is approaching 1.5 billion euros ($1.63 billion), adding that the country’s policymakers are working on a multi-year program to continue to help Kyiv.

Oil companies are getting richer and richer, but we don’t see that money — and who is really paying for this?

Ingrid Fiskaa

Foreign affairs spokesperson for Norway’s Socialist Left

When asked about accusations that the country is war profiteering, Petersson replied, “No, not really … The indirect effect, we fully acknowledge, is that our revenues have increased, but I do not accept that label.”

“We are very well aware of the responsibility that comes with the fact that we have these resources. Of course, the responsibility to protect it, bearing in mind the crucial role of energy security now in Europe for this winter and possibly next,” Petersson said.

He added that Norway’s government is also “fully aware of the responsibility that comes with being a supporter and donor, not only to Ukraine but also other countries across the world suffering the effects of Russia’s war.”

‘We should contribute more with this money’

Norway, which last year overtook Russia as Europe’s biggest natural gas supplier, has been one of the world’s top crude producers for the past half-century. That’s thanks to its gigantic North Sea petroleum deposits — the spoils of which have been used to provide a robust safety net for current and future generations.

The Norwegian government’s net cash flow from petroleum sales is transferred into Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund. The government can only spend a small part of the fund each year, but this is still estimated to amount to nearly 20% of the government budget.

The so-called Government Pension Fund Global, among the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, was established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of Norway’s oil and gas sector. To date, the fund has invested in more than 9,300 companies in 70 countries around the world.

Norway, which last year overtook Russia as Europe’s biggest gas supplier, has been one of the world’s top crude producers for the past half-century.

Jp Black | Lightrocket | Getty Images

“These excess profits, as we may call it, are a direct result of the war,” said Ingrid Fiskaa, foreign affairs spokesperson for Norway’s Socialist Left, whose support is critical for Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store’s minority government.

Fiskaa highlighted that legislation in Norway limits the use of oil revenues in the domestic economy to avoid high inflation — and that, she argues, strengthens the case for investing in international solidarity.

“There should be a lot more debate on this issue,” Fiskaa told CNBC via telephone. “Oil companies are getting richer and richer, but we don’t see that money — and who is really paying for this? It is the rest of the world. We should contribute more with this money.”

Norway’s aid budget has hovered near 1% of its gross national income for more than a decade, making it one of the world’s most generous donors.

Store’s government was sharply criticized last year for proposing to cut the proportion of GNI it spends on foreign aid to 0.75%. That level is still significantly above the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s average of 0.3%, but civil society groups described the move as “embarrassing” at a time when Oslo was making money like never before.

Norway’s foreign ministry has since pledged to deliver on its aid budget target of 1% of GNI in 2023.

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#Norways #fossil #fuel #bonanza #stokes #impassioned #debate #spend #war #profits

NPD discuss investments for the future on the Shelf

Post By Oil and Gas Energy, Europe, gas, Norway, Norwegian, NPD, oil, petroleum

Only rarely have we seen so much oil and gas produced on the Norwegian shelf as was the case last year – and only rarely have we seen such significant investment decisions.

Norway has definitely fortified its role as a predictable, long-term supplier of energy to Europe.

2022 was a year marked by the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis. These factors also impacted activity on the Norwegian shelf. The disappearance of Russian gas on the European market led to greater demand for Norwegian gas, which caused Norway to become the largest supplier in Europe by the end of last year.

Some of the underlying causes for this development are that the authorities granted permits to increase production from several fields, there was a high degree of operational stability and Snøhvit also came back on stream after a lengthy shutdown.

Gas production was nine billion standard cubic metres higher in 2022 compared with the previous year. Gas now accounts for more than half of production from the Shelf. A total of 122 billion standard cubic metres (Sm3) of gas was produced.

Numerous investment decisions for new projects were also submitted in 2022.

“These are remarkable investments for the future. This will help ensure that Norway can continue to be a reliable supplier of energy to Europe”, says Director General Torgeir Stordal.

Stordal notes that this is good news for the Norwegian supplier industry, as well as for overall value creation and the welfare and prosperity that flow from the resources on the Shelf.

High production

Production is extremely high, and it will continue to grow in the years to come. Gas production is projected to remain at around 2022 levels for the next four to five years.

A total of approx. 230 million Sm³ of oil equivalent was produced in 2022 – which corresponds to about 4 million barrels per day.?

This consistent high production level can be attributed to three main factors, the first of which is the high number of producing fields on the Shelf (93).

In December, Johan Sverdrup Phase 2 came on stream in the North Sea. Nova has commenced production, Njord in the Norwegian Sea has started up following modification work, and several new fields are projected to start producing in the years to come.

And last but not least, older fields are producing longer, and producing more, than previously expected.

New development plans

A substantial number of decisions were made in 2022 regarding new developments that can help maintain this production. The authorities received 13 plans for new developments (PDOs), as well as several plans for projects aimed at increasing recovery near existing fields, or extending field lifetimes. Decisions have also been made to approve major investments on existing fields.

According to figures provided by the licensees, this entails total investments of around NOK 300 billion and an overall present value of NOK 200 billion. Together this amounts to a growth in reserves of 252 million Sm³ of oil equivalent, half of which is gas.

“It’s great that the industry is investing and making a commitment to developing the resources on the Norwegian shelf. Now we’ll expect the industry to demonstrate that it can implement these projects according to the plans, and thus provide a foundation for robust value creation and good resource management,” says Stordal.

The largest new project is Yggdrasil (previously called Noaka) in the North Sea, where investments are projected to reach NOK 115 billion. This development will help promote the establishment of new infrastructure on the Shelf.

“Good area solutions are incredibly important for the further development of the Norwegian shelf. Even small discoveries can become quite profitable if they’re tied into existing infrastructure,” says Stordal.

Exploration

32 exploration wells were completed last year. They resulted in 11 discoveries, several of which are smaller than expected. That is why resource growth is lower than in the three previous years.

“At the same time, it’s gratifying that the companies have shown a willingness to drill exploration wells that carry greater risk when it comes to finding oil or gas. This is typical in parts of the Shelf or the subsurface where no discoveries have been made previously,” says Stordal, who emphasises that the Lupa gas discovery in the Barents Sea, announced in December, is exciting.

The NPD expects the Barents Sea to hold significant undiscovered gas resources. A lack of infrastructure to export the gas has meant that the industry has been less eager to explore for gas in this area. More discoveries like Lupa could make development profitable, alongside investments in infrastructure to solve the transport challenge.

In January 2022, 53 new production licences were awarded in the Awards in predefined areas (APA) 2021, and there was also substantial interest in APA 2022, where the application deadline was in September.

Emissions are declining

Advances were made in carbon capture and storage last year. Longship will become a reality. Meanwhile, two injection wells were completed in the Northern Lights project, and good progress has been made in organising the terminal facility in Øygarden in Vestland county. Construction of the world’s largest CO₂ transport ship is also under way.

There is growing interest in acreage for injection and storage of CO₂. In 2022, the authorities awarded three exploration licences for storage of CO₂, one in the Barents Sea and two in the North Sea. The initial objective of these licences is to determine whether these areas are suitable for CO₂ storage.

Seabed minerals under consideration

Options are being explored as regards potential profitable mineral activity on the seabed on the Norwegian shelf. The objective here is to determine whether this could help secure a future supply of important metals in the transition to a low-emission society.

Once again in 2022, substantial efforts were undertaken to enhance the basis of knowledge regarding seabed minerals.

The NPD has analysed data collected from its own and other scientific surveys over a decade. This knowledge has led to a resource assessment.

The NPD has assisted the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy with an impact assessment in connection with the opening process for exploration for and production of seabed minerals.

The impact assessment is currently available for public consultation.

Long-term perspective

Stordal wants to emphasise that significant resources remain in place on the Shelf, both in fields, in discoveries and in potential discoveries: “The companies must continue to develop the fields, in part by drilling more development wells. They must mature more of the discoveries in their portfolios, and they must also approve decisions to develop more of them. Moreover, they should continue to explore for new oil and gas resources. This is the only secure pathway to make Norway a reliable, long-term supplier of energy to Europe.”

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/09012023/npd-discuss-investments-for-the-future-on-the-shelf/

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