Happy New Year 2021
I’d like to start this off by expressing gratitude to everyone that I’ve had the pleasure of working with this last year: Everyone linked to the Norwegian Centre of Circular Economy (Borg CO2, Norsus, Batteriretur, FREVAR, Borg Havn, and Circular Regions to mention a few), everyone at Blue Cross Norway, everyone at Cultura Bank, everyone at Næringshagen Østfold, everyone at Østfold Avfallssortering and Calendula Sisterhood.
I would also like to say thank you to the local and regional municipalities and the politicians for their work on enabling opportunities for a more sustainable future - in close collaboration with businesses and organizations.
Thank you - to each and every one of you for the time, the knowledge and experiences we have shared in 2020. I look forward to seeing you all and continuing our collaboration in 2021!
We fight together against COVID19
2020 marks a change in history with its Covid19 crisis. The whole world has been shaking. The pandemic has been a reminder that in a connected world what affects one of us, can affect all of us. Fighting Covid19 requires a team effort.
- We may emerge from this with a healthier respect for our common humanity and our planet.
We fight together to reduce global greenhouse emissions
In 2015, The Paris Agreement was signed by 197 countries - with the goal to reduce global greenhouse emissions and to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius while pursuing means to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees.
The agreement includes commitments from all countries to reduce their emissions and work together to adapt the impacts of climate change. It marks the beginning of a shift towards a low-carbon world. Norway has launched many efforts, but the biggest one by far is the launching of ‘Longship’ for carbon capture and storage. It is a milestone in the Government’s industry and climate efforts.
“According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, CCS will be necessary to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in line with the climate targets!
Since May 2019 the Norwegian Centre of Circular Economy has been working with Borg CO2, project managing their feasibility study where they have looked into everything needed to build an industrial CCUS Cluster at Øra ‘and regionally’. The cluster has a capture potential of up to 630.000 tons of CO2/year, and has received funding from Climit. 630.000 tons of CO2 is a lot of CO2 potentially not reaching the atmosphere… You can read more about Borg CO2 at: www.borgco2.no and/or watch this video where Pål Mikkelsen, the leader of the Borg CO2’s steering committee tells about Borg CO2’s plans (the video is in Norwegian).
last video to watch: An inconvenient Sequel: Truth to power
In 2007 the video ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ was launched showing former Vice President Al Gore educate and inspire the next generation on climate issues. I remember watching it in 2008 at BI Business School as part of the Master of Management program ‘Corporate Responsibility and business Ethics under Globalization and Climate Change’. It brought climate change to the forefront of mainstream culture. In 2017 ‘An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power’ was launched. If your interested in learning more about climate change this is one video to watch. You could start by watching this trailer.
In this video Al Gore says “The next generation would be justified in looking back at us and saying: “What were you thinking, couldn’t you hear what the scientists were saying, couldn’t you here what mother nature was screaming at you!”.
Let’s all work together to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all!
