Balancing Act 

Norway’s approach to oil and gas production and decarbonization goals

Marla Orenstein, Director, Natural Resources Centre, Canada West Foundation and Tyler Robinson, Johnson Shoyama Policy Analyst
October 2022
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Like Canada, Norway is a major oil and gas exporter with almost half of the government’s revenues coming from the sector. At the same time, Norway has very ambitious goals around industrial decarbonization and managing climate change. How is the country reconciling oil and gas production, economic prosperity and its low-carbon objectives? And where will the energy transition take the country in the future?

To answer these questions, CWF hosted a webinar with Norway’s Ambassador to Canada, Jon Elvedal Fredriksen and Asgeir Tomasgard, Director of the Energy Transition Initiative at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. They discussed Norway’s challenges and successes, and the pathway that the country has laid out to succeed in the energy transition.

This What Now? brief summarizes their key messages. To provide context for Canadian readers, some answers have been supplemented with additional information.