Oslo Creates Ambitious 'Climate Budget'

Oslo sets ambitious goal for carbon emissions with a "Climate Budget." The budget is a sign of climate policies to come as the Paris climate agreement begins to take effect around the world.

1 minute read

October 17, 2016, 7:00 AM PDT

By Casey Brazeal @northandclark


With the Paris climate agreement set to take effect November 4th leaders from around the world are considering how they will take on the challenge of lowering their carbon emissions. According to an article in Next City by Jen Kinney, Norway's capital, Oslo, is looking to track its emissions in a first-of-its-kind, climate budget. "We’ll count carbon dioxide the same way as we count money," Vice Mayor, Robert Steen, told Reuters.

The budget is an aggressive one, "The Oslo Council had already agreed earlier in the year to halve Oslo’s emissions from 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide in 1990 to 600,000 by 2020," Kinney reports. That pace would be well ahead of the one set by the Paris agreement and another first of its kind for the city.

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