Norway has met its target to buy 30 million CERs via two tenders held by the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) after contracting to purchase 4.9 million from four projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

The credits, which come from two water purification Programmes of Activities (PoAs) in Nigeria and Malawi, a clean cookstove PoA in DRC and a landfill waste project in Sudan, are to be used by Norway to help meet its emissions reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period (2013-2020).

The country has purchased 30 million CERs from some 17 projects, at an average price around €2.20 each – which is around four times the current secondary market price for the credits in Europe.

Those figures could increase as Norway plans to more than double its spending on CERs next year.

Norway’s centre-right coalition government plans to spend NOK 270 million (€29 million) on buying CERs in 2016, according to a budget proposal presented in October.

The Scandinavian nation has a binding Kyoto target to reduce GHG emissions 16% below 1990 levels by 2020, but its annual output has barely changed in the past six years at around 53 million tonnes, leaving it off course towards meeting its goal.

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com

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