Thread by @SonyKapoor

#Norway´s #ClimateShame and the impossibility of getting a good and just #COP26 outcome ... a brief #thread

Accounting for exported emissions, #Norway has fourth highest per capita emissions in the world after Kuwait, Brunei and Qatar.

Much higher than Russia, USA, China, UK!

Norway also happens to be one of the richest countries in the world with a GDP per capita that is in the top 3 or top 10, depending on which ranking you look at.

In addition, it has an #OilFund with money in the bank worth more than 300% of GDP, the largest #SWF in the world.

We have a (temp) seat in the UN security council, fancy iourself as a major player in foreign affairs, have tried our hand at peacemaking with moderate success & are, on a per capita basis, one of the biggest contributors to development aid

We think we are fair-minded & benign!

Norway just had, what was called a "climate election" because of how much the issue was discussed and YET

The new government has declared that it will NOT stop even exploring for more oil and gas, leave alone stopping any extraction from existing oil and gas wells. #COP26

Unlike in many of the other oil & gas exporters, we have an informed electorate, and free and fair elections. Norwegians are fully aware of the disastrous effects of #climatechange on the peoples of the world & on our own children.

These are openly discussed and acknowledged!

In other words, we say and think we are fair-minded humanitarians, yet continue to spew pollution and CO2 into the world, fully aware of the lives and livelihoods this will cost.

We already have enough "blood money" in the bank, but are unwilling to even make modest sacrifices

If after a "climate election" and at the start of #COP26, #Norway´s opening position is "Stopping the exploration for new oil and gas will undermine the green transition",

unwilling to even consider stopping further exploration rather than leading the charge at @COP26 to STOP

While, with a straight face joining other OECD economies asking poor developing economies to stop funding and extracting fossil fuels, what hope is there for the world???

A rich, benign people, fully aware of the consequences of their actions, fail the test of modest sacrifices

While with a straight face asking far poorer peoples of the world to make far bigger sacrifices in the short-term trade off between development and sustainability.

If Norwegians care so little about their own children, leave alone strangers in distant lands and their children

What hope is there for a successful @cop26 that will entail huge sacrifices, and redistributive decisions across geographies, countries and generations?

Zero!

#Norway and its actions were the canary in the coal mine and we have failed our children our country and the world!

We have failed our children as we leave them money in the bank, but a dystopian world.

We have failed our country as the "Norwegian disease", a version of the Dutch disease makes our economy fragile and vulnerable

We have failed the world as we failed 2 take the lead at COP26

The right thing to do, which we have unsuccessfully advocated, is to have gone to @cop26 with an offer to immediately cease all further exploration for oil and gas, and use that leverage to get as widespread an agreement from other major fossil fuel producers as possible

A version of the @fossiltreaty that @CampanaleMark and others have advocated.

Combined with an offer to substantially increase our #ODA budget for the most climate vulnerable economies

And a reorientation of the #OIlFund´s strategy towards funding #ClimateInvestments in EMs

Domestically, this would translate into a strategy for economic diversification, which we have hardly begun.

Norway lags other Nordics on innovation, competitiveness, patents, economic diversity & complexity and measures that define long-term economic success #NorwegianDisease

Oil and gas has been good for Norway, but only up to a point. There is something known as too much of a good thing. It allowed us, a poor economy, to catch up in income terms with richer neighbours.

Now it exposes us to #ClimateAction, makes us indolent & perverts policymaking

The "Norwegian Disease" is perverse. It is like the "Dutch Disease", but worse in some aspects. At least in the Netherlands of the 1970s Oil & Gas were a sunrise industry & #ClimateChange was not an existential threat.

Norway is making the same mistakes, in worse circumstances.

It is not too late. #Norway can do an about turn at @COP26 & immediately stop further exploration for Oil & Gas, & help navigate a more successful outcome.

Combined with offers for substantially more aid & investments, Norway could yet emerge a #ClimateHero not #ClimateVillian

If not, #Norway can expect to be vilified by developing economies, as well as the #FridaysForFurture generation. Our own children won't speak to us anymore if we fail them.

The #OilFund will be sued in #climatelitigation and our economy will stagnate. A poorer future awaits us!