The Norwegian protest movement “Stop Oljeletenga” uses methods like the Last Generation, but its goal is different: This is related to Norway’s biggest dilemma.
Oslo – It seems as if film footage is being played back in slow motion, still frame by still frame: around 20 people in orange high-visibility vests move extremely slowly down Wergelandsveien in Oslo in millimeter steps. The royal castle is just around the corner, it’s morning rush hour – and the vest wearers are causing traffic jams. Similar to the so-called climate-Stickers in major German cities who stick themselves on the streets in protest against combustion engines. The paradox: Here in Oslo it is almost exclusively emission-free electric cars that now have to struggle past the demonstrators; you hardly see petrol or diesel vehicles in the Norwegian capital. But the activists here are concerned with something different than their German colleagues: they are concerned with perhaps Norway’s biggest dilemma.
![Activist Fridtjof from the protest movement “Stop Oljeletenga” during a demonstration in Oslo](https://www.merkur.de/bilder/2023/10/30/92654323/33102019-aktivist-fridtjof-von-der-protestbewegung-stopp-oljeletenga-waehrend-einer-demo-in-oslo-2v7EsMCxRPBG.jpg)
Climate glue in Norway: “This has to stop”
“This has to stop,” says one of the demonstrators named Fridtjof. “Stop Oljeletinga” (Stop oil exploration) is the name of the movement, which is something like that Norwegian version of the last generation is. “We have similar methods,” explains the 33-year-old. Sometimes they stick to each other, most recently a glue attack was planned on Norway’s most famous painting “The Scream” in the Munch Museum; that could be thwarted at the last second. The latest tactic is now the slow motion number. The effect is similar to that of the sticking campaigns – but if the police come, you can simply walk away, says Fridtjof. Norwegian pragmatism.
Similar to last generation – but with a special goal
Unlike the last generation, the Norwegian protest movement has a very specific goal: “We want Norway to finally stop producing oil. Otherwise there is a risk of an environmental catastrophe and our future is at stake,” says Fridtjof.
In fact, it was the oil boom of the 1960s that took Norway from the poorhouse of Europe to one of the richest countries in the world. Since the 1990s, the state has invested the immense income from oil and gas exports in the so-called oil fund. It has been getting fatter for decades; in the first half of 2023 alone there was an increase of the equivalent of over 130 billion euros. “The Norwegian government is planning to develop more oil fields,” says Olav Øye from the NGO Bellona in Oslo, which works on solutions to the climate crisis. “This is problematic, both for the climate and directly for the environment, because drilling is also carried out in sensitive ecosystems,” says Øye.
Spicy: While fossil and climate-damaging fuels have brought Norway extreme prosperity and continue to bring a lot of money into the coffers, the country itself wants to be emission-free soon. Electromobility has been massively promoted, the electricity that comes from the socket here comes almost 100 percent from hydropower and when it comes to CO2 storage (CCS), Norway is more advanced than almost any other country in the world. How does that fit together?
Energy policy in Norway: “You just push the problem away”
“From a Norwegian perspective, this is not a contradiction,” explains Tobias Etzold. The political scientist conducts research at the state-funded think tank Nupi (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs) in Oslo, among other things, on energy and security issues. “The mentality here is: The oil is for foreign countries, we have nothing to do with it anymore, we just export it. What others do with it is not our problem. This simply pushes the problem away,” explains the expert.
![Tobias Etzold researches at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in Oslo.](https://www.merkur.de/bilder/2023/10/30/92654323/33102098-tobias-etzold-forscht-am-norwegian-institute-of-international-affairs-in-oslo-3EEcP98cfhBG.jpg)
However, not everyone sees it that way. “Some say: Because of its oil industry, Norway is actually a big CO2 emitter and can’t explain its way out of it. The Awareness that Norway needs to reduce its dependence on oil and gas, is definitely there for some.” The Scandinavian country is actually looking for alternatives; the topic of hydrogen, for example, will probably play a decisive role: Norway wants to supply millions of tons of blue and later green hydrogen in the future, especially to Germany and the Netherlands, There are already concrete plans for pipelines. There are enough potential buyers in the industry; as part of the planned decarbonization, many big players are dependent on hydrogen from the north. Take Thyssenkrupp Steel in Duisburg, for example: Steel will soon be produced there using blue hydrogen instead of coal – within this decade. And the biggest The world’s inland port in Duisburg is working with immense effort to become a central hydrogen hub to become.
Hydrogen exports mean loss of prosperity
But: Even if hydrogen production and trading on a large scale gets started at some point, the experts agree that the returns will not reach the level of oil profits for years and perhaps decades. “That certainly means a certain loss of prosperity,” says Tobias Etzold. Although Norway was already aware of the finite nature of the business at the beginning of the oil boom – “that’s why there is the oil fund, to ensure prosperity for the time afterwards.” And yet it is certainly appropriate to look at it in the medium term to become independent of oil.
Fridtjof from the “Stop Oljeletinga” movement also sees it this way. Norway should invest in new technologies in order to get rid of the oil business as quickly as possible, he says: “But it’s all about the money.”
Some people consider the climate stickers to be quite naive
Conservative circles in Norway find positions like this naive, says Tobias Etzold. “The accusation is that, especially among younger people, there is a clear demand for state provision, for example in the education system. The fact that this is good in Norway is due to the oil boom of the 1960s and the trade in oil and gas.” (pen)
Transparency note: Ippen.Media was invited to Oslo by the Norwegian embassy in Berlin.
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