EU and Norway announce groundbreaking Green Alliance

The EU and Norway have established a Green Alliance to strengthen their joint climate action, environmental protection efforts and cooperation on the clean energy and industrial transition.

The agreement was signed in Brussels earlier this week by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Norway's prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.

This is only the second agreement of its kind, following the EU-Japan Green Alliance signed in 2021.

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The EU-Norway Green Alliance will focus on the following priority areas:

• Strengthening efforts to combat climate change, including cooperation on climate adaptation, carbon pricing, carbon removals and carbon capture, transport, utilisation and storage;
• Increasing cooperation on environmental issues with a focus on halting and reversing biodiversity loss, forest degradation and deforestation, promoting circular economy and addressing the full life cycle of plastics, the development of global standards for the management of chemicals and waste and sustainable ocean management;
• Supporting the green industrial transition and further enhancing political and industrial cooperation through strategic partnerships, such as a future Strategic Partnership on Sustainable Raw Materials and Batteries Value Chains;
• Accelerating the clean energy transition with a focus on hydrogen and offshore renewable energy;
• Decarbonising the transport sector across all modes of transport, with special regard to zero GHG emission and zero pollution shipping;
• Increasing regulatory and business cooperation to set global standards for the innovative environmental solutions required to accelerate the transition to circular and net-zero economies;
• Consolidating existing collaboration on research, education and innovation in the areas of decarbonisation, renewable energy and bio-economy;
• Working together to promote sustainable finance and investments to set Europe on a pathway to an environmentally sustainable, climate-neutral and climate-resilient economy.

According to the European Commission, the Green Alliance is the most comprehensive form of bilateral engagement established under the European Green Deal, with both parties committing to climate neutrality and to aligning their domestic and international climate policies.

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The EU and Norway also agree to jointly promote ambitious climate action on the global stage.

To this end, the two parties, as leading major donors of climate finance, will cooperate to support developing countries and emerging economies in implementing their climate and environment policies.

Keeping to 1.5C

To help keep global temperature rise within the 1.5C limit, the agreement confirms that full respect for the precautionary principle is paramount in the Arctic region.

Said von der Leyen: “Norway is a long-standing and reliable partner to the EU and we share a common vision for building a climate-neutral continent. We want our societies and economies to prosper together while reducing emissions, protecting nature, decarbonising our energy systems and greening our industries. This Green Alliance makes our bond even stronger and allows us to design a better future together.”

Prepared and negotiated under the auspices of executive vice-president for the European Green Deal Frans Timmermans, the Alliance was announced on the same day at the same time as the Ostend Declaration and North Sea Summit.

The Ostend Declaration, which follows the earlier Esbjerg Declaration in 2022, saw energy ministers from nine European countries commit to more than doubling the planned 120GW capacity of North Sea offshore wind to 300GW by 2050.

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Additionally, a key project announced as part of the Summit was the LionLink electricity link, a joint project between National Grid and TenneT aiming to connect offshore wind between the UK and the Netherlands and described as a ‘first-of-its-kind’ Anglo-Dutch electricity link.