RIYADH, 2 May 2008 — Nordic country Norway, occupying the western part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, is playing an increasingly important role on the world stage. Many remember Norway — as the Palestine-Israeli Peace Process got under way — through the Oslo Peace Process that entered the global radar in 1993.
There were questions then: How come Oslo, where others had failed? When I went to see the Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store, who was in Riyadh on a two-day visit, the question kept haunting.
Store’s ‘first bilateral visit’ carried a political message — to further deepen and expand bilateral relations between Riyadh and Oslo, and initiate “systematic political dialogue between the two countries that have a number of commonalities.”
“We may be two different countries, but energy has brought us closer. This resource has transformed both our societies. We are often faced with similar issues — primarily of managing large resource,” said Store in an exclusive interview with Arab News at the Faisaliyah Hotel in Riyadh.
Indeed, Store had a point. Saudi Arabia is currently the world’s largest crude producer, and Norway is the world’s third largest producer of natural gas and the fifth largest producer of oil. Stressing the point further, the Norwegian foreign minister, who had just then come from a meeting with his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud Al-Faisal and was about to leave to see Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, underlined that in this era of climate change, fossil fuel producers need to come up with technology to address environmental issues. He added that Norway’s experience with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) could be a part of the answer.
The minister underlined that besides forging closer relations on CCS technology; Norway could also provide technological help to Saudi Arabia in developing solar energy too.
The two-day visit to Riyadh preceded the meeting of donor countries in London on May 2 to discuss future support for the Palestinian territories.
When the group met last in Paris, $7.7 billion was pledged. Norway would chair the donors’ meeting. During meetings in Riyadh, the upcoming conference was also discussed, indicating close coordination on major global issues.
Despite having conformity in views on most issues, the Norwegian foreign minister also raised the issue of capital punishment. During talks with the Saudi Human Rights Commission, the Norwegian foreign minister raised the issue of capital punishment and especially that of juvenile capital punishment.
“I told them how Norway perceives the issue. And then the juvenile dimension of the punishment is above it. I drew their attention to some specific cases and how we can address that,” Store said, adding such issues could only be resolved through mutual respect.
The discussion then moved to the Israeli nuclear whistle blower, Mordechai Vanunu, who has filed his second application for political asylum in Norway. He has even been offered a job at the University of Tromsoe in north Norway.
This university also honored Vanunu with an honorary doctorate in 2000. Vanunu’s earlier asylum application in 2004 also did not get the required seal of approval from the Norwegian government.
Explaining the Norwegian legal system, Store said to gain asylum one needs to come to Norway. “We recognize Vanunu’s act. In fact it is Israel, which does not permit him to leave Israel. In case — and indeed this is a big if — he could leave Israel, there would be no hindrance in granting him political asylum. But at this moment this issue could not be evaluated and studied,” the minister clarified.
Discussing the Oslo Peace Process, Store said, “It was an issue of having right people at the right place then.” The interlocutors enjoyed the confidence of both parties and that apparently got the Oslo Peace Process off the drawing board. People do realize that Norway has no colonial past and no imperialistic ambitions. It has no second agenda, and this helps us in promoting conflict resolutions, he added.
Contrary to its size, Norway has made significant contributions in achieving peace and stability in some conflict zones — be it the Middle East or Sri Lanka. It even has a presence in Afghanistan.
“We are ready to make contribution wherever we are welcome. If we realize we have access, contacts and trust of the parties, if we feel we can leverage, we are ready to contribute,” he said.
The issue of Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) is a hot subject these days. The story goes back to the 1990s when Norway decided to levy tax on carbon dioxide (CO2) emission — the greater the emission, the greater the tax. This pushed companies operating in Norway to try and emit less CO2, leading to the development and refining of the CCS technique. Statoil, a Norwegian oil company, helped refine the technology. Statoil extracts CO2 and then pumps it down to the reservoir, adding to the pressure there.
In stage two, Norway now envisions to have a gas-fired power station with zero emission, using the CCS technology. “We intend to achieve this goal within the next six years, by 2014,” the minister adds enthusiastically.
“We intend to take it further, to coal fired power stations — regarded as the most dirty as far as climate issues are concerned. Emerging economies like China are banking more on coal fired power stations,” he added.
Saudi Arabia has also evinced keen interest in the technology to make fossil fuel as climate friendly as possible, and the two countries are in touch with each other on the issue too.
However, there is no dearth of skeptics. Some claim, Norway is a big proponent of the CCS because it could turn out to be big business, with Aker Kvaerner projecting it to be a $1.5 to $2 trillion business per annum. Others say Norway and other fossil fuel producers are pushing the CCS technology to hamper alternative fuel development and reduce the stress on promoting efficiency. Some others talk of leakages and its consequences.
Members in the minister’s delegation say fossil fuel is to continue dominating the energy mix — some start has to be made somewhere, otherwise the world is in for disaster in real sense.
The minister seemed to agree. Even the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Control (IPCC) admits that the technology would help reduce emission by 20 to 30 percent at the global level and within the industrialized world it could help bring down emissions by 50-60 percent.
CCS is growing in acceptance, the Norwegian foreign minister appeared positive. “EU is working on 10 to 15 pilot projects, required investments are projected to come in. Saudi Arabia and other countries are showing keen interest in the technology,” Store said.
Norway currently meets 20 percent of European gas needs. The minister referred to interdependence of producing and consuming countries and emphasizes dialogue between producers and consumers.
“We need to use energy for conflict resolution and not for generating conflicts.”
