Discourses in Norwegian Climate Policy: National Action or Thinking Globally?

Abstract

Norway is often recognised as a pioneer country in environmental politics. Norwegian climate policy has changed considerably during the 1990s. It has evolved from a situation in 1989 where there was a broad consensus round the notion that a national target for stabilisation of CO2 emissions was the principal instrument for climate change abatement, to a situation at the turn of the century where Norway emerged as one of the most committed supporters of flexible mechanisms, the so-called ‘Kyoto mechanisms’. We identify two main discourses in the Norwegian politics of climate change, and label them ‘national action’ and ‘thinking globally’. This paper gives insight into the core elements of these two discourses and how they act as basic knowledge systems when actors put forward standpoints on the climate change issue.