Emissions to air, 1990-2007, preliminary figures

The increase is mainly due to CO₂ emissions from flaring at the new LNG plant at Melkøya. Continued growth in road traffic and increased metal production also contributed to the increase in emissions, while a decrease in crude oil production and installations of new technology in the manufacturing industry partly offset the increase.

These are some of the results found in the new, preliminary emission figures produced by Statistics Norway in close cooperation with the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority.

Total Norwegian GHG emissions reached 55.0 million tonnes CO₂ equivalents in 2007. This is an increase of 1.5 million tonnes CO₂ equivalents (2.7 per cent) from 2006, and an increase of close to 11 per cent compared to 1990. Following two years of decrease in the emissions, partly due to a decline in crude oil production, the emissions were somewhat higher than in the previous peak year of 2004. The most important factor contributing to this increase was technical difficulties in the initialisation of the LNG plant at Melkøya outside Hammerfest.

The manufacturing industry, petroleum industry, and road traffic are the largest contributors to GHG emissions in Norway, accounting for 72 per cent of the total emissions in 2007.

Increasing emissions from petroleum industry

Slightly more than 1.6 million tonnes CO₂ were emitted from Melkøya in 2007, of which the main part was due to flaring due to production difficulties. The emissions are expected to be about 1 million tonnes CO₂ when the production runs as planned. The emissions from other parts of the petroleum industry continued to decrease in 2007 due to lower production of crude oil. In spite of lower production, the activity at Melkøya led to an increase of almost 11 per cent in the total emissions from 2006 to 2007. The GHG emissions from the petroleum industry almost doubled from 1990 to 2007.

Increasing GHG emissions from road traffic

The emissions from road traffic continued to increase in 2007 as a result of traffic growth. 10.4 million tonnes CO₂ equivalents were emitted from this source in 2007, a 3 per cent increase from the previous year. Road traffic accounted for 19 per cent of total Norwegian GHG emissions. When other types of transportation are included, such as domestic air traffic, domestic sea transport, and railroads, this activity accounts for around 32 per cent of the GHG emissions.

Improvements in technology and a shift from petrol to diesel vehicles have resulted in an increase in emissions that is smaller than the increase in traffic. The shift to diesel vehicles has been stimulated by the introduction of a higher non-recurring duty for petrol cars in 2007. Three out of four sold passenger cars were diesel-powered in 2007. This is a strong increase from 2006, when just above half of new passenger cars were diesel-powered.

New technology resulted in lower emissions from manufacturing industry

In spite of increased activity and increased GHG emissions from metal production, total emissions from the manufacturing industry decreased from 15 million tonnes CO₂ equivalents in 2006 to 14.7 million tonnes CO₂ equivalents in 2007. This was mainly due to the emphasis on environmental technology in the chemical industry.

CO₂ is still the main problem

Greenhouse gases include the six gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol (see box): carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆). In 2007, CO₂ accounted for more than 82 per cent of total GHG emissions measured by tonnes of CO₂ equivalents, whereas methane and nitrous oxide accounted for almost 16 per cent. Fluorinated gases accounted for slightly less than 3 per cent of the total emissions in 2007. Since 1990, the CO₂ emissions have increased by 29 per cent, whereas emissions of fluorinated gases have fallen by 74 per cent.

Other relevant articles

Go to article on emissions of NO_x and NMVOC

Tables:

• Table 1 Emissions to air by source. 1990
• Table 2 Emissions to air by source. 2005
• Table 3 Emissions to air by source. 2006*
• Table 4 Emissions to air of greenhouse gases. 1973-2007*
• Table 5 Emissions of greenhouse gases to air by sector. 2006*