Norway to buy emission quotas for state employees’ flights

OSLO (AFP) – Norway has pledged to buy CO2 emission quotas run up by state employees’ official overseas flights in a bid to fight global warming, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has announced.

“We want to set an example,” Stoltenberg said in his traditional New Year’s Day speech broadcast by Norwegian public service television channel NRK on Tuesday.

State employees affected by the plan make some 20,000 international flights a year. The cost of buying emission quotas for these flights would be around 2.5 million kroner (405,000 dollars, 305,000 euros), Norwegian news agency NTB said.

Stoltenberg challenged major Norwegian companies to follow his government’s example.

AFP