VOTE MDG: A Green Government is closer than you think

by MDG August 10. 2021

MDGs climate crisis package

If the voters give us power, we have the plan ready. We must turn Norwegian environmental policy around in record time. We go to the polls on a program full of concrete measures. And today we have presented a climate crisis package with measures in all sectors that are starting to cut emissions immediately, says party leader Une Bastholm.

The UN Secretary-General is asking all countries to tighten up climate policy and says that the new report to the climate panel must be the death knell for fossil energy before it destroys our planet. A new government must therefore quickly implement a climate crisis package. MDG’s requirements for this include:

1. Sharpen Norway’s climate goals: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2030 and 95 percent by 2035.
2. Stop oil exploration immediately, including assignment of exploration blocks in predefined areas. Tax benefits and subsidies to the petroleum industry must be phased out. The oil tax package must be reversed.
3. Establish an oil commission with the goal of starting the phasing out of the petroleum industry and the transition to new, green industrial projects.
4. Present a plan to develop 150,000 green jobs that will replace the oil jobs. Venture capital for green investments, green public procurement, and restructuring support for companies that currently supply the oil industry is greatly increased.
5. Make it cheaper and easier to choose environmentally friendly, by reducing public transport prices across the country by at least 20 percent, removing the VAT on fruit and vegetables, supporting electric bicycles, reuse and repairs, and exempting electric flights from airline tax.
6. Massive investment in the development of railways, urban railways, subways, and cycle paths, financed by halting the development of capacity-increasing motorways. Investment in better and faster train connections, including night train connections abroad. A continuous charging network for electric cars must be built throughout the country by 2023. New sales of fossil cars will be banned in 2023.
7. Introduce a climate wage where the income from increased fuel prices is redistributed to the population in a geographically and socially just way.
8. Make it more expensive to pollute, by increasing the CO2 tax to at least NOK 2,000 / tonne, increasing tolls in the big cities, increasing airfares between the big cities and abroad.
9. All large point discharges in Norway will be treated by 2030, including waste incineration plants and industry. Financing of carbon capture at Klemetsrud must be in place immediately.
10. Protection of 30% of Norwegian nature on land and in the sea, among other things to increase storage and uptake of carbon, among other things through a ban on new cultivation of bogs, drop motorway developments and limit clear-cutting forestry. Strengthening soil protection and investment in carbon storage in the soil. At the same time, we will increase efforts to preserve rainforests to prevent greenhouse gas emissions from logging.
11. Join the coalition of countries that will take the lead in phasing out the production of fossil energy, and invite to a summit in Norway about this after the election.
12. Introduce a climate and nature percentage in development assistance, where an amount corresponding to one percent of the national income (GNI) is transferred annually from the Petroleum Fund to climate measures, climate adaptation, and nature conservation in developing countries.
13. A long-term goal is to halve Norwegian meat consumption, so that consumption does not exceed what we can produce even on our own areas and resources. VAT on meat is increased, while VAT on fruit and vegetables is removed.
14. Implement a green reform of the economy that reduces material consumption to a fair and sustainable level so that the climate and natural consequences of our consumption are reduced.
15. Strengthen Norwegian climate preparedness by increasing allocations for flood and landslide protection, strengthen emergency preparedness agencies and municipalities’ work with climate adaptation.

This is not a comprehensive list of the climate measures the MDGs will implement if we gain influence after the election. All our priority requirements in negotiations can be read here. With all the measures we go to the polls on, the entire program can be read here.

About MDG

The climate and nature crisis is the greatest injustice of our time. Short-term populism, growing disparities, and environmental destruction threaten the freedom and security many of us have taken for granted. The antidote is green politics – and green politicians, who understand that a better world is possible. It requires that we dare to think new, listen to professional knowledge, and collaborate across borders.

In MDGs, our starting point is that humans are not above nature, but that we are part of it. We have three basic principles of solidarity for all our policies: solidarity with other people, future generations, and animals and nature. We are part of an international, green grassroots movement with a global perspective. Social justice for all, regardless of class, orientation, or skin color is the key value.

Our solutions are being hailed by more and more people. That is why we are constantly setting new membership records and growing in each election.

Going forward, we will make it easy to choose environmentally friendly, both in everyday life and for companies. We will help solve the climate crisis the world is in, stop pollution and environmental damage, and create a future with secure jobs. We must even out differences, eradicate poverty, and lift the most vulnerable. We must curb the pressure and stress in society, and free up more time for family, friends, and hobbies. We will contribute to the entire world’s population being able to live good lives within nature’s limits. But to do that, all politics must pull in the same direction. In line with the UN Sustainability Goals and the Paris Agreement.

Together we can create a future you can look forward to. Read more about our politics or become a member today. For people and the environment.