Mr Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, has decided to put green electricity certification on ice. The new Government that took office last autumn promised to create a market for green certificates that would have resulted in considerable investments in renewable energy sources. Now this project has come to nothing.

The Government's plan was to discuss with Sweden the creation of a common market for green certificates, but this week the plan came to a sudden end. The reason given was that the arrangement would be too expensive for consumers and for industry. The opposition, the electricity suppliers and the environment organizations have made very critical and negative comments to the Minister's statement.
Also the Norwegian Forest Owners' Federation regrets the Government's decision.
Such certificates would have created incentives for small private hydro-electric power plants to make an important contribution to a balanced national energy market, as well as to considerable local economic growth. Counsellor Bj?rn Lauritzen says that if these certificates had included existing bio-energy based electricity production, the competitiveness of the important Norwegian wood processing industry would be considerably improved.
Minister Enoksen said that the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy will soon make its own alternative proposal and that this will provide better results than certification.