For the first time more electric and hybrid vehicles are being sold in Norway than petrol and diesel vehicles. The new milestone in the rapid growth of EVs is largely the result of incentives offered by the Norwegian government in a bid to phase out sales of new oil-powered cars by 2025.

The latest figures show that new battery-powered EVs made up 17.6% of total sales in January. With hybrid cars making up 33.8%, that makes a combined total of 51.4%. Although the totals dropped in February, overall sales for the first two months of the year were split almost exactly 50:50.

The measures to encourage people in Norway to buy EV and hybrid cars include tax incentives, privileged parking in municipal car parks, exemptions from charges on toll-roads and ferries, and access to bus lanes. The country has also invested heavily in charging infrastructure, which is likely to continue as the government has set a target of one charging station for every 10 vehicles by 2020.

As a result, more than 100,000 EVs had been sold by December in a country of just 5.2 million inhabitants. Taking EVs and hybrids together, Norway has around 500,000, second only to China and making it by far the global leader in terms of low or zero-emission vehicles per citizen. Some 98% of Norway’s electricity comes from hydropower.

The country has set itself a target for new cars of 85 grammes of CO2 per kilometer by 2020; it is currently at 88g, down from 133g when the decision was taken in 2012.

Commenting on the January sales figures, Norway’s climate and environment minister, Vidar Helgesen, said: ‘This is a milestone on Norway’s road to an electric car fleet, and it serves to showcase that green transport policies work.’

As well as tax breaks, the growth in EVs and hybrids is also the result of advances in EV technology. An official from the European Environment Agency told the Guardian: ‘People aren’t just using EVs as hobby cars for city shopping any more, they’re switching to full e-mobility because it’s possible now.’

The growth in EV sales prompted Norway to consider banning all new petrol and diesel cars by 2025. The government has confirmed that the elimination of new fossil-fuel cars by 2025 is a target though it won’t ban the vehicles outright. It wants to reach the goal through ‘a strengthened green tax system based on the polluter pays principle’, it said in a statement, suggesting that, while some of the incentives will not be able to last forever, a move away from tax breaks and special treatment is not imminent.

If the target is to be reached, it will see a massive surge in EVs. At the end of 2015, Norway had just 1,400 EVs on its roads, whereas by 2020 it expects to have 250,000 – and this in the country that is Europe’s biggest oil producer.

Meanwhile, last week Beijing announced it was joining two other Chinese cities, Shenzhen and Taiyuan, in converting its entire taxi fleet to EVs. China’s motivation for encouraging electric propulsion is based on improving air quality and reducing dependence on imported oil, and it sends a signal to the world’s carmakers that they have to go electric if they want any presence in the Chinese market. China remains the world’s largest electric vehicle market, with twice as many EVs than Europe and nearly four times the number in America.

(transport environment)

An Australian man managed to secure a “great timing” to propose to his significant other: under the majestic and eye-catching Northern Lights.

In a second attempt to place the sparkler on his girlfriend Karlie Russell’s ring finger, 34-year-old Dale Sharp finally succeeded in front of the Aurora Borealis in Lofoten, Norway.

His first attempt was during their vacation to Iceland last year. Sharp, 34, had tucked the engagement inside a bottle of hand cream. However, when they found out that their luggage was overweight before their connecting flight from the Faroe Islands, Russell, 29, disposed of the bottle containing the ring. Sharp found out that the ring was thrown away weeks after their trip.

“I didn’t know until a week, weeks after when we were in Iceland and I was looking everywhere for the ring,” Sharp explained to Daily Mail Australia. “I asked her where the moisturizer was and she told me she threw it out in the airport.”

That memorable day marked the 30th time Sharp and Russell, both landscape photographers, witnessed the Northern Lights together. “We both love chasing the Northern Lights and photographing them together. So, it seemed pretty fitting,” he added. “I hadn’t heard or seen anyone do it (propose at the Northern Lights) before, and I wanted to do something different from everybody else.”

He initially wanted to pop the question during the seventh anniversary of their first date, but Sharp wanted to seize the picturesque view of the Northern Lights during their two-month working trip to the Arctic. “It was the most amazing display of color in the Aurora that we’ve ever seen,” he said. “I wanted to take [the] full opportunity and make it happen at its absolute best. The moment was right, it felt good, so why not.” After seconds of astonishment and bliss, Russell agreed to marry him.

Sharp’s engagement shot, which he pulled off by setting the camera on timer, is now adored by thousands of people on Facebook and Instagram.

“The most ironic thing is that we’re both landscape photographers, but have zero photos hanging up on our walls of our images,” Dale revealed to the news site. “But this is one image that we want to keep for ourselves, and hang up on the wall.”
(lifestyle)

In response to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund’s new “Responsible Investment” Report, NGOs warn that the divestment of many coal companies is still overdue. In 2015, the Norwegian Parliament directed the Pension Fund’s manager, Norges Bank, to divest companies that “base 30% or more of their activities on coal” by the end of 2016.

In August 2015, Norges Bank had estimated that the coal divestment action would cover around 120 companies with an investment value of approximately NOK 55 billion. “But the job is only half done,” comments Christoffer Klyve from Framtiden i våre hender (The Future in our Hands), Norway’s largest environmental organization.

According to analysis undertaken by the German NGO urgewald, Framtiden i våre hender and Greenpeace Norway, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) still has investments of over NOK 26 billion in 32 companies that own coal mines or coal-fired power plants. And that is not all: The GPFG also has investments of over NOK 2 billion in 15 companies that transport coal or build coal power stations. Among these is, for example, Harbin Electric, the world’s number one manufacturer of new coal plants.

“We were especially shocked to see that the GPFG is still invested in RWE, a company that produces almost 60% of its power in coal-fired power stations and is Europe’s biggest CO2 emitter. RWE is also part of a joint venture that operates mountaintop removal mines in the United States, a practice that people in Norway abhor,” says Heffa Schuecking, director of urgewald. “Clearly, this company should have been among the first to go.”

“This is not good enough. NBIM needs to explain why they have not come further in their divestment from coal, more than 1,5 years after the Norwegian Parliament made the decision to divest from coal” says Truls Gulowsen from Greenpeace Norway. “It is distressing to see that we are invested in companies like India’s Power Finance Corporation or China’s Shanghai Electric Group which are among the top developers of new coal plants worldwide. Applying the new climate criteria put forward by the Norwegian Parliament should mean dropping such companies.”

According to the NGOs’ analysis, the GPFG is invested in companies that are planning to build over 51,000 MW of new coal-fired capacity. “This is equal to Germany’s entire fleet of coal-fired power stations. The return on such investments is not wealth for future generations, it is a 4°C world,” says Schuecking.

(N.Sethu)

Norway has given the green light for the world’s first ship tunnel so that cruise liners and other boats can make a shortcut through the fjords.

The project will cost 2.7 billion krone (£260million) but Norway – with its huge North Sea oil and gas wealth – can easily afford it.

The tunnel, through the Stad Peninsula, in western Norway, will be big enough to allow through the giant Hurtigruten cruiseliners, which ply between Bergen and Kirkenes.

The peninsula, which is 1,600 feet high and is dominated by the Tarvaldsegga mountain, is extremely windswept and hazardous and the tunnel will allow ships to shelter from the wind.

A recent review found there had been 46 shipwrecks and 33 deaths in the waters surrounding the Stad Peninsula since 1945.

Media reported that local Conservative MP Bjørn Lødemel called it a ‘historic’ decision.

The tunnel itself is set to become a tourist attraction in its own right when it opens in 2029.

Work is set to begin next year on the tunnel, which will be 148 feet high, 118 feet wide and a mile long.

The tunnel project was chosen, instead of a traditional ship canal, because of the environmental damage a canal would do to the peninsula.

It would allow through ships of up to 16,000 metric tons, including freighters and cruise ships.

Currently the Norwegian Coastal Express cruise ships and ferries sail into the town of Aheim on the Vanylvsfjord and then have to go all the way around the Stad Peninsula to reach Måløy.

But once the tunnel is complete they will be able to sail through the isthmus and come out near the island of Barmøya, saving not just time but also money.

The Norwegian government have now finally thrown their weight behind the project but it still has to be voted on by the country’s parliament, the Storting.

The tunnel has been designed by architects Snøhetta, which designed the home of the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo and the new headquarters in Paris for the French newspaper Le Monde.

The tunnel will be built with a conventional blasting and drilling rig.
The rock which is blasted out to make the tunnel is set to be used to establish new commercial space in the surrounding area.

The Stad Peninsula is considered the boundary between the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea.

Norway has a proud record of building tunnels to overcome its difficult geography, which includes snow-capped mountains and long fjords.

The 15-mile long Lærdal tunnel, which opened in 2000, is the world’s longest road tunnel. It is so long that motorists are encouraged to have a break at refreshment stops and caves are specially lighted along the way to prevent drivers falling asleep.

(dailymail)