Norway on Friday released its nature action plan ahead of next month’s COP16, but drew ire from environmentalists as it stopped far short of making national commitments aligned with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

Presenting the plan to reporters in Oslo Friday, Climate and Environment Minister Tore O. Sandvik stressed Norway’s ambition to finalise a national nature account by 2026, and said the plan will be an important tool for municipal authorities – which make the vast majority of decisions on area use – in the policy-making process.

While Norway will strive to reduce the repurposing of particularly important natural areas by 2030, the minister outlined three types of developments that will still be prioritised: renewable energy and power lines, defence-related projects, and critical digital infrastructure.

“We’re setting a direction and putting tools in place that will make it easier to lift work on nature higher up on the agenda,” Sandvik said.

“The sum of the measures and instruments we include in the report will contribute to nature becoming the framework for all policies.”

As one of Norway’s international contributions to nature protection, Sandvik announced the government has decided to extend its global forestry initiative – under which it pays countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to maintain their rainforests – by five years, to 2035.

Incidentally, that initiative is also Norway’s most important international contribution on climate change.

“SCANDALOUS”

Norway will present its plan at COP16 in Colombia, where all nations are set to outline their strategies for how to contribute to the 2022 GBF.

However, on several of the key targets in the GBF, Norway set its own ambition level far lower and in some cases did not set numerical targets at all.

For example, Target 2 of the global treaty states that countries shall ensure that at least 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and marine and coastal ecosystems are under effective restoration by 2030.

Norway, however, shied away from making that commitment, but said instead it will have mapped degraded areas by that date.

“By 2030, the extent of degraded and destroyed areas in Norway will have been made clear, efforts will focus on increasing nature restoration, and nature restoration will be carried out where the greatest benefits are achieved for society,” the plan said.

The country did commit to protecting 30% of its land area by 2030, up from 25.7% currently, with an additional 2% in the process of becoming protected and the rest expected to be met through the introduction of Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs).

But the similar target for marine areas – of which Norway currently has 4.2% – under protection, no target was set.

“Norway will consider how to set a goal for protection and [OECMs] for the ocean areas under Norwegian jurisdiction after carrying out assessments of the areas that can be recognised as protected through OECMs,” it said.

“The government’s focus is on contributing to the achievement of the global goal in the nature agreement and will get back with a plan for how a future target can be achieved in a manner that also allows for sustainable use of Norwegian ocean areas,” said the plan.

Norway has over the past year received a criticism for opening up for mining of minerals on the ocean floor, but did not go into specifics on that in the plan.

“With the nature plan the government is planning for us to continue losing nature until 2050, only slower than today,” Karoline Andaur, CEO of WWF Norway, said in a LinkedIn post Friday.

“It’s scandalous. This is a plan for not having to do anything. And it shows the government does not intend to be judged on the commitments Norway signed in the nature agreement.”

The modest funding Norway does mention in the plan is not sufficient to make any sort of impact on the need to end the nature crisis, said Andaur.

Her comments were echoed by the Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature.

“It is critically important for Norway to also set a national goal for oceans as soon as possible, given the great pressure we see on marine areas from sectors like mining, petroleum, industrial fishing, fish farming, and power,” said the group’s Pernille Bonnevie Hansen.

She said that on terrestrial protection, Norway should aim higher than 30%, given its focus on protected areas in Arctic islands Svalbard and Jan Mayn as well as mainland mountain regions, with other types of nature falling between the cracks.

PRIVATE SECTOR

Unlike the EU, the Norwegian government is not planning a raft of policies and initiatives to drive private sector funding and action on nature and biodiversity.

Beyond extending its global forest initiative and “work for greater synergies between climate finance and nature finance”, the plan stated the government will continue monitoring discussions around innovative funding mechanisms.

There are also no plans for any mandatory reporting for companies on their impacts and dependencies on nature.

The focus was instead on providing guidelines and information for businesses.

“By 2030, Norway will have made arrangements so that business effectively can develop and make available decision-relevant and comparable reporting on nature risk and nature impact,” the plan said.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com

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