Norway
Norway seethes after Nobel laureate slammed for giving Trump her award
an 1 26
3 22 [recall how fast renege on sedition caucus pledges]
https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/fossil-fuel-giants-ditching-russia/
Major international oil companies began dumping their investments in Russian oil and gas this week following the country’s invasion into Ukraine. But experts say it’s unlikely these decisions will mean anything good for the transition to clean energy, and could actually set the companies back with their plans to achieve net-zero emissions.
This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.
It started with BP. Last weekend, under pressure from the U.K. government, the British oil giant decided to exit it’s nearly 20 percent stake in the Russian company Rosneft. Russian crude makes up about a third of BP’s oil production, and the company said it would take a financial hit of as much as $25 billion. In a statement, BP Chair Helge Lund said, “The Rosneft holding is no longer aligned with BP’s business and strategy.”
Shell, Exxon, and the Norwegian oil company Equinor have since followed, withdrawing from various joint ventures in oil and gas projects in Russia. While abandoning oil and gas production is exactly what climate advocates want these companies to do, the moves do not represent a shift in strategy for Big Oil.
For one thing, when BP first announced its plans to achieve net-zero emissions in 2020, the company made it clear that the plan did not apply to its stake in Rosneft.Now, the exit from Russia might actually hurt that plan, according to Jonathan Elkind, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.
Both BP and Shell have said they planned to fund their forays into clean energy with profits from the fossil fuel side of their businesses. “So this creates, at a minimum, a crosswind that they have to figure out a way to manage,” said Elkind, referring to the two companies’ exit from Russia. “That may translate into a need to rethink some of what their priorities had been.”
In other words, the situation in Russia won’t stop demand for fossil fuels, and major oil companies may decide to replace their Russian investments with new oil and gas ventures elsewhere. According to the International Energy Agency, Russian oil and gas production is not the most carbon-intensive in the world, but it’s also not the cleanest. If this leads BP, Shell, or Exxon to move into parts of the world with dirtier production, their emissions could increase.
It’s also unclear whether oil companies will be able to sell off their Russian assets or if they’ll be forced to walk away from them. Even if they are able to sell assets, the proceeds may not be put toward clean energy. When Shell sold off its assets in the U.S. Permian Basin last year for $9.4 billion, itsaid that it would spend some of the cash for the energy transition, but returned $7 billion of the proceeds to shareholders. “There’s not generally a straight line you can draw from oil majors selling out of oil and gas plays to buying into clean energy,” said Lorne Stockman, research co-director at the advocacy organization Oil Change International.
Stockman also takes issue with the idea that BP and Shell need oil and gas funds to transition to clean energy. “Companies that are in the clean energy business don’t need to run that business off of fossil fuel profits. There’s a thing called credit markets. You can get loans. You could issue shares. There are many ways to raise money to invest in clean energy,” he said.
Another question is whether Big Oil’s withdrawal of capital, and the technical expertise that comes with it, will have consequences for Russia’s plans to expand oil and gas development in the Arctic Circle— development that has been made possible due to climate change’s rapid warming of the area.
For example, Rosneft is building a multi-billion dollar oil production and export hub called the Vostok Oil project on the Taymyr peninsula, threatening a fragile ecosystem and the Indigenous communities that depend on it. On Wednesday, a key international investor in the project, Trafigura, said it was reviewing its stake.
Elkind said it’s hard to tell whether the withdrawal of investment and trade ties with Russian companies will be a short-term phenomenon or more enduring. But another factor is whether Russia can complete a project like Vostok without technological support from the West.
“All of this would create headwinds for Vostok,” he said. “Whether they can be overcome by Rosneft, it is too early to tell.”
alrt rt EUR
Krange, O. Kaltenborn, B.& Hultman, M. (2018). :{“:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}::{Cool Dudes in Norway:(style="background-color:#ff9900;"):}::{: Climate Change denial among conservative Norwegian Men”:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:, Environmental Sociology.
McCright, A., Dunlap, R (2011). "Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States", Global Environmental Change.
In their article ‘Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States’ the authors state: ‘Clearly the extent to which the conservative white male effect on climate change denial exists outside the US is a topic deserving investigation.’ Following this recommendation, we report results from a study in Norway. McCright and Dunlap argue that climate change denial can be understood as an expression of protecting group identity and justifying a societal system that provides desired benefits. Our findings resemble those in the US study. A total of 63 per cent of conservative males in Norway do not believe in anthropogenic climate change, as opposed to 36 per cent among the rest of the population who deny climate change and global warming. Expanding on the US study, we investigate whether conservative males more often hold what we term xenosceptic views, and if that adds to the ‘cool dude-effect’.1 Multivariate logistic regression models reveal strong effects from a variable measuring ‘xenosceptic cool dudes’. Interpreting xenoscepticism as a rough proxy for right leaning views, climate change denial in Norway seems to merge with broader patterns of right-wing nationalism.
German Officials Declare “Nazi Emergency” in Dresden
norway greg johnson pro brevik
Norway arrests US white supremacist ahead of far-right ...
https://www.cnn.com › norway-arrest-white-supremacist-greg-johnson-intl
1 day ago - Norwegian authorities have arrested a high-profile American white supremacist, hours before he was due to give a speech at a far-right conference in Oslo on Saturday. The detained American, Greg Johnson, is editor-in-chief of the white nationalist Counter-Currents Publishing group ...
Missing: brevik | Must include: brevik
American White Supremacist Greg Johnson Arrested In Norway
https://www.huffpost.com › entry › greg-johnson-norway-arrest_n_5dbf8...
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Greg Johnson Arrested in Norway for Thoughtcrime
https://www.counter-currents.com › 2019/11 › greg-johnson-arrested-in-n...
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Norwegian authorities arrest American white nationalist before ...
https://thehill.com › blogs › blog-briefing-room › news › 468779-norwegi...
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US white supremacist reportedly arrested in Norway | Europe ...
https://www.dw.com › us-white-supremacist-reportedly-arrested-in-norway
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Missing: pro | Must include: pro
/pol/ - HAPPENING >American white nationalist Greg Johnson ...
boards.4chan.org › pol › thread
2 days ago - >American white nationalist Greg Johnson arrested during a rally in Oslo, Norway ...... that Brevik became a terrorist because the Norwegian government used ... It's to send a message to other pro-whites that come to Norway.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/11/calls-probe-white-supremacy-and-domestic-terrorism-after-arrest-arson-attacks-black
Civil rights advocates on Thursday called for a serious examination of racist hate crimes and domestic terrorism in the wake of arson attacks on three black churches in Louisiana.
Authorities announced that they had arrested Holden Matthews, a 21-year-old suspect accused of setting fire to three historically black churches in southern Louisiana over the course of 10 days. Matthews, who is white and the son of the deputy sheriff of St. Landry Parish, was charged with three counts of arson.
The NAACP argued that the church burnings, which are reminiscent of several similar incidents which took place throughout the South in the civil rights era, should be investigated as a racist hate crime.
"This is the same domestic terrorism that has been the hammer and chisel used to chip away at the humanity of Black Americans and the suppression of our political power," the group said in a statement.
The group noted that crimes linked to white supremacy have been on the rise since President Donald Trump took office and called on the federal government to lead in the fight against domestic terror attacks:
Since Trump has taken office, we've seen a rise in white supremacy and hate crimes—so much so that we issued letters to push both the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees of the House of Representatives to hold hearings for the resurgence of hate and raced based crimes that are overcoming the nation. Change must come from the top and we will continue to push Congress for additional hearings and concrete next steps to thwart acts of terrorism against communities of color.
Local officials in Louisiana noted publicly that Matthews had beeninterested in "black metal" music, which has beenlinked to white supremacist groups which burned churches in Norway in the 1990s. As Daily Beast reported:
A Facebook page that appeared to belong to Matthews showed he was active in pagan and black metal pages, and that he commented on two memes about far-right former neo-Nazi metal musician Varg Vikernes, who served 15 years in prison for killing a fellow metal musician and burning churches in Norway.
Some on social media cautioned the news media not to suggest that the suspect was simply influenced by an anti-religion philosophy, noting that a potential connection to racism should be investigated seriously.
...twts
twt no lx
So here’s a thing. The cop’s son who is currently under arrest for burning down black churches is into the neo-pagan Viking/Death Metal scene. People are try to angle this as “he wasn’t racist, he was demonic and anti-Christian!” DON’T LET THEM
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white supremacist faux-Vikings don’t want, like, socialized healthcare or a 100% literacy rate, like Scandinavian countries currently have, they want to rape and pillage and do violence against “impure” people, like the Vikings of their imagination. It’s racist cosplay.
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Those churches were not burned down because they are churches. They were burned down because they are black churches.
Megan Romer
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@meganromer
Christians are not a targeted minority in the US. Black folks are. 3/3 is not a coincidence here or anywhere.
...
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https://thinkprogress.org/europe-bans-one-of-americas-most-prominent-white-supremacists-34b34726f623/
no lx twt
Europe bans one of America’s most prominent white supremacists
Jared Taylor claims he can no longer travel through the continent.
CASEY MICHEL
MAR 31, 2019, 10:06 AM
American white supremacist Jared Taylor says that he can no longer travel throughout Europe. CREDIT : YOUTUBE
AMERICAN WHITE SUPREMACIST JARED TAYLOR SAYS THAT HE CAN NO LONGER TRAVEL THROUGHOUT EUROPE. CREDIT : YOUTUBE
Jared Taylor, one of the most prominent white supremacists in the U.S., claimed on his website on Friday that he’d been “banned from Europe” until 2021.
The ban came as Taylor attempted to transfer in Switzerland for a flight to Finland. According to Taylor, Swiss police informed him that Polish authorities had barred Taylor from traveling through the Schengen Zone, a 26-country area of Europe allowing visa-free travel.
“I will spend the night at the airport, and tomorrow I will be deported,” Taylor wrote. “I am free to walk around the terminal, I can make phone calls and use the internet, and I have a meal voucher that is supposed to last me for the next 12 hours. The officer kept my passport, though, and won’t give it back to me until I board the flight home.”[twt]
Jason Wilson
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@jason_a_w
Jared Taylor of American Renaissance says he has been banned from Europe until 2021, seemingly at the instigation of Poland, where he has given talks to nationalist groups (via @FFRAFAction)
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7:46 AM - Mar 30, 2019
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Taylor had been planning on speaking atwhite supremacist conferences in Scandinavia, including one on Saturday in Stockholm that featured other well-known fascists like Mark Collett and Greg Johnson.
View image on Twitter
Anti-Fascism & Far Right
@FFRAFAction
??MINI-THREAD??
Further evidence of transnational organising on extreme right.
Today in Stockholm Sweden there is an international alt-right/Identitarian conference - Scandza Forum.
This is now an annual event. It was held in Oslo in 2017 & Stockholm last year
4:01 AM - Mar 30, 2019
It’s unclear why Polish authorities issued a blanket ban against Taylor. Taylor attributed the ban to a 2018 trip to the country, where he gave multiple television interviews. During that trip, Taylor said that Polish police said he was “spreading a totalitarian ideology.”
Taylor is best-known for cloaking his white supremacy behind a facade of so-called “race realism,” which claims that intellectual differences between races are inherent. He gained prominence in 2016, when Richard Spencer — one of the most well-known faces of the so-called “alt-right” movement that backed then-candidate Donald Trump — cited Taylor as his mentor.
As it is, Taylor is the latest white supremacist prohibited from traveling to certain other countries to spread his ideology. Spencer has likewise been banned from Europe, also at the request of Polish authorities. Milo Yiannopoulos, who has worked closely with white supremacists in the past, was also recently banned from Australia, and Lauren Southern, who claims she’s not a white supremacist, has been banned from traveling to the U.K..
The move to bar Taylor — and having European countries enforce their borders against unwanted individuals — sent other white supremacists into fits. One, Hunter Wallace, said the “moral rot of Europe can’t possibly get much deeper,” a take echoed by Scott Greer, who wrote for Richard Spencer’s white supremacist journal. Nicholas Fuentes, who attended the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, described it as a “stab in the back.”
The ban also comes alongside increased scrutiny about trans-national white supremacy, much of which emanates from the U.S. Taylor has long served as one of the most well-traveled mouthpieces, having toured North America, Europe, and Russia to push his brand of hatred. The ban also comes less than a month after a white supremacist shooter killed 50 Muslims in a New Zealand mosque, the most violent act of white supremacist terror in years.
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Norway’s sovereign wealth fund — a state-owned investment fund worth approximately a trillion dollars — recently announced it was divesting from oil and gas exploration companies around the world. Not surprisingly, many oil and gas stocks declined following the announcement.
While this is good news for the climate, this was simply a smart business decision. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, known as the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), primarily exists due to Norwegian oil production. And the fund will continue to be a major investor in companies like Exxon.
It appears it’s just cutting its losses on money-losing endeavors like fracking in America, tar sands oil production in Canada, and frontier exploration by UK companies in Africa and South-East Asia.
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The beginning of the end of the age of oil moved a step closer Friday, with Norway's government recommending that its $1 trillion wealth fund should divest from upstream oil and gas producers.
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Norwegian parliament voted this week to make Norway the world's first country to bar its biofuel industry from importing deforestation-linked palm oil starting in 2020, The Independent reported.
Environmentalists celebrated the move as a victory for rainforests, the climate and endangered species such as orangutans that have lost their habitats due to palm oil production in Indonesia and Malaysia. It also sets a major precedent for other nations. ... The new report highlights a range of policies that can help keep emissions in check.
...
Most G20 nations can take actions to end fossil fuel subsidies, phase out coal-fired power plants, implement policies to boost industrial efficiency and increase support for the use of renewable energy to heat and cool buildings.
Norway has adopted a combination of incentives that helped electric vehicles grab nearly 40 percent of the new car market there last year. A few countries have adopted efficiency standards for heavy-duty vehicles, but the others have yet to do so.
Broadly speaking, the largest potential for emissions cuts lies in three areas, the report says:
- boosting wind and solar power,
- improving efficiency of household appliances and cars, and
- stopping deforestation while allowing new forests to grow.
The report also says carbon prices offer tremendous room for improvement. About half the world's emissions do not carry any price or tax. The report cites various studies to say that adopting a carbon tax of $70 per ton could, along with other policies, lead to emissions cuts of up to 40 percent in some countries.
What About Cities and States That Are 'Still In'?
...
World’s Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund Raises Standards for Oceans, Sustainability
Norway's $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, released two documents Wednesday stating it wants the companies it invests in to follow more rigorous rules on oceanplastic pollution and overall sustainability, Reuters reported.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the fund that invests in more than 9,000 companies in 72 countries, said it expected companies to consider ocean sustainability when creating strategy, take ocean-related risks into account and be transparent and responsible in managing the oceans, CNBC reported.
"The ocean is a vital part of the biosphere and an important part of the global economy," NBIM CEO Yngve Slyngstad said in a statement reported by CNBC. "We expect companies to manage the challenges and opportunities related to sustainable use of the ocean."
The fund's ocean "expectation document" is focused on companies that benefit from or impact the ocean in some way, from plastic producers to fisheries to shipping. These companies are worth $56.5 billion total and represent around 8 percent of the fund's global equities portfolio, Reuters reported.
Ocean plastic pollution has emerged as a major environmental problem in recent years, and plastic producers make up about half of the companies targeted by the new document.
Ocean sustainability is one of Norway's stated foreign policy goals, since its main industries of oil and gas, fishing, shipping and fish farming are all dependent on the ocean.
The fund also issued a note Wednesday saying it wants companies to work towards meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, CNBC reported. The goals include environmentally responsible ways to alleviate poverty, promoting social equality and growing the economy by 2030.
The fund said there would be consequences for companies that didn't develop adequate strategies towards achieving these goals, according to Reuters.
"If we believe there isn't a long term sustainable model for various reasons, we will divest from them, like we have done with palm oil and deforestation," the fund's Chief Corporate Governance Officer Carine Smith Ihenacho told Reuters.
The fund was built off of oil and gas revenues, but Norway is currently in the process of deciding if it will divest the fund from fossil fuel companies. A government-sponsored commission advised against this move in August, to the consternation of climate change activists, The Guardian reported.
"This summer Nordic heatwaves, wildfires in the Arctic Circle and alarming news of the thickest Arctic sea ice starting to break up, have brought climate change so close to home for Norway. It seems unthinkable to continue to invest in companies that have caused this chaos," 350.org Europe Team Leader Nicolò Wojewoda told The Guardian.
In the meantime, environmental group Greenpeace was modestly optimistic about the fund's most recent sustainability decision.
"We would have liked to see from the expectation paper more specifics on issues like aquaculture, seabed mining and plastic use reduction," head of Greenpeace Nordic's sustainable finance campaign Martin Norman told Reuters. "But it is clearly a step in the right direction and we look forward to see results of their engagement with companies on ocean sustainability."
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The largest bank in Norway, DNB, has sold its assets in the companies behind the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, and it’s considering whether to terminate three separate loans the bank has made to finance the project. The sold assets were worth $3 million. The loans under consideration finance up to 10 percent of the pipeline’s construction. Norway’s DNB is not connected to DNB First, which is based in Pennsylvania and is not involved in the Dakota Access pipeline. This comes as Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, is almost certain to miss the January 1, 2017, deadline by which it had promised oil companies it would have completed construction, opening up the possibility the pipeline company may lose its contracts with oil companies. In recent court documents, Energy Transfer Partners acknowledged that if the Army Corps of Engineers does grant the final permit to drill underneath the Missouri River, it would still take the company between three and four months to finish the project. It’s still not clear whether the permit will ever be granted. Even if it is granted, missing the January 1 deadline means oil companies will have the right to renegotiate or even cancel their contracts to have oil shipped through the Dakota Access pipeline. These cancellations are likely, given that Bakken oil production has fallen by 20 percent since its peak in December 2014—the same year the contracts were first signed. Energy Transfer Partners has acknowledged in court filings "loss of shippers to the project could effectively result in project cancellation."
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