In 2005 and 2006 Norway had a promising decrease in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). This trend turned into a three percent increase of emissions in 2007, making it a record breaking year for Norway. Never before have the emissions of greenhouse gases been more extensive than in 2007.
According to Statistics Norway, the large increase is mainly due to CO2 emissions from the LNG-plant at Melkøya in northern Norway. The plant, which processes the gas from the Snøhvit gas field, has had a lot of technical difficulties in the initialization and therefore the emissions have been a lot higher then what was estimated.
Total GHG emissions reached 55 million tonnes CO2 equivalents in 2007, which is an increase of 1,5 millions tonnes CO2 equivalents compared to 2006. In percent the increase is 2,7 percent and compared to 1990 the increase in Norway has been close to 11 percent. In addition to the increased emission from the petroleum industry, growth in road traffic and increased metal production is responsible for the record high emissions.
Read press release from Statistics Norway
