Norway’s electric car drive belies national reliance on fossil fuels

Norway became the first country to sell more electric cars than petrol, hybrid and diesel engines put together last year, new data shows, with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounting for two-thirds of sales in the final months of 2020. Norway has one of the world’s most ambitious green targets, planning to phase out sales of all new fossil-fuel vehicles by 2025, five years earlier than the UK. It is quite a contradiction in a country that has become one of the richest in the world on the back of its oil and gas revenues, has made itself dependent on oil, and clings to further production even as the world increasingly rejects fossil fuels in pursuit of zero emissions. While on the one hand the government is auctioning oil exploration licences for fields in the fragile Arctic , on the other it is aiming for a carbon-neutral national vehicle park by 2030. On Friday, it submitted its national plan on climate, which included this ambitious aim and the promise that, from next year, the public sector would be required to procure zero-emission vehicles only. While Norway is still one of the world’s big oil producers, it gets more than 90% […]

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