At the now-or-never point of limiting global warming, Norway’s Ambassador believes Norway and Singapore’s industrial decarbonisation initiatives are important parts of the solution.
This week, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that to limit global warming to around 1.5 degrees Celsius, greenhouse gas emissions will have to peak before 2025 and be reduced by 43 per cent by 2030.
Read the report: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change.
‘I think the report tells us that we’ve reached the now-or-never point of limiting warming to 1.5C,’ says IPCC lead author Heleen De Coninck to BBC News. ‘We have to peak our greenhouse gas emissions before 2025 and rapidly reduce them. And we will have to do negative emissions or carbon dioxide removal in the second half of the century, shortly after 2050, to limit warming to 1.5C.’
Industrial solutions
Norway’s Ambassador to Singapore, H.E Eivind Homme, referenced the new report in a keynote at a Singapore Maritime Week event this Wednesday. He also added to the picture.
See programme: MTEC/ICMASS CONFERENCE
‘In the Arctic part of Norway, Svalbard, global warming is three times as fast as the rest of the globe. However, what happens in the Arctic Sea also affects sea level in other places, such as here in Southeast Asia, close to the equator,’ said Ambassador Homme.
He seconds the UN- report, which states that the key to reducing carbon footprint in the short term will be how we generate energy. He believes Norway and Singapore’s industrial decarbonisation initiatives are integral parts of the solution.
‘The industry-anchored initiatives of the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation serve as an excellent example of what Singapore is doing to accelerate the green transition’, states the Ambassador.
Learn more about the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation
Frontrunners by 2030
Parallelly, H.E Homme refers to Norway’s recently unveiled Maritim strategy. This is a broad-based, stakeholder-inclusive strategy for the maritime industry’s research, development, and innovation.
One of the strategy’s cornerstones is Norway’s becoming a front-runner in maritime decarbonisation by 2030.
‘The Green Shipping Programme and Maritime clusters, working together with forward-looking shipping companies, on electrification, hydrogen, green ammonia and other areas is an important success factor’ states the Ambassador.
Link: Norway’s maritime strategy
Read: Singapore – a perfect fit for Norwegian export-reform
Read: Green Shipping Programme
The importance of the Maritime sector is also highlighted by that Norway’s new general export reform points out green maritime and offshore renewables as critical areas for Norwegian export.
Norway’s Ambassador also addresses the need for continued cooperation.
‘Our fundamental and common climate challenges call for more international and cross-sector cooperation in the maritime field than ever before –, particularly within research and innovation. In this respect, Singapore and Norway is a perfect match and serves as good example. I agree with Foreign Minister Balakrishnan’s words when he visited Norway earlier this year; the only challenge between Singapore and Norway is that we should do even more together
Save the date: Singapore Norway Innovation Conference 1. November 2022.
