By Doug Mellgren
Oslo - Former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan addressed global challenges on Friday before Norway's governing Labour Party, which has vowed to reduce the country's net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, the Labour Party leader, said on Thursday that Norway would be the first country in the world to set such an ambitious goal.
Stoltenberg's three-point plan presented at the party's annual congress calls for reducing pollution by 10 percentage points more than promised under the Kyoto Agreement by 2012, a 30 percent emissions cut by 2020, and lowering net emissions to zero by 2050.
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| 'I'm doing this because climate change is crucial' |
The last goal would be obtained by using cleaner technology at home, buying carbon quotas abroad and helping developing countries build clean energy sources, such as wind and solar power.
"I'm doing this because climate change is crucial," Stoltenberg told his party, which is expected to approve the proposal. "The greenhouse effect concerns all people. It is the most dangerous environmental problem."
Labour's junior partners in the coalition government - the Socialist Left and the Centre Party - support the first goal of cutting emissions by 30 percent within 13 years, but have not yet agreed to the two other proposals.
Climate change was the central topic at Labour's national congress, which sets party policy.
Annan and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who lead the UN commission that released the groundbreaking environmental report "Our Common Future" in 1987, were addressing the delegates on the climate threat on Friday.
Stoltenberg's proposal met mixed reactions.
"Labour has finally woken up to the seriousness of climate change," said Baard Lahn, leader of the Norwegian environmental group Nature and Youth.
However, others were critical.
"The three goals Stoltenberg presented are, for the moment, visions without content," said Marius Holm, deputy leader of the Bellona environmental group. "When we see firm plans ... we will see how the visions are to be achieved."
Rasmus Hansson, secretary-general of the Norwegian branch of WWF said: "Stoltenberg is naive, he thinks countries like China and India will sit back and watch Norway buy its way out of the problem with climate quotas abroad. There have to be cuts in the West."
Borge Brende, of the opposition Conservative Party, also said there was a lack of specific steps in the proposal.
However, Stoltenberg said "Norway will take a leading role in the development of a new, binding climate agreement" that was even tougher than Kyoto. Under the Kyoto agreement, Norway agreed to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2012.
Norway is a key world oil exporter, and has set aside surplus wealth in an investment fund now worth about 1,8-trillion kroner. Scientists say burning of fossil fuels contributes to global warming, but opinions diverge on how much. - Sapa-AP
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