The Government of Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative
11/02/2009 //
Global warming is perhaps the greatest problem facing the world today, and one of the most challenging tasks the world community has ever had to address. Norway’s overriding goal is for the average rise in global temperature to be limited to no more than 2°C above the pre-industrial level. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a temperature rise beyond this level risks dangerous and unpredictable climate change. The poorest countries will be most severely affected.
The primary objective of the Norwegian Government’s climate policy is to play a part in establishing a global, binding, long-term post-2012 regime that will ensure deep enough cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions. Norway’s goal is for the average rise in global temperature to be limited to no more than 2°C above the pre-industrial level with the help of such a regime. The Climate and Forest Initiative must give the greatest possible support to efforts to achieve this goal.
Promoting sustainable development and poverty reduction is an overriding objective of Norwegian foreign and development policy. It is therefore also an objective of the Climate and Forest Initiative, in addition to the climate-related goals listed below. According to the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, 350 million of the world’s poorest people, among them 60 million indigenous people, depend almost entirely on forests for their subsistence and survival - while another billion people depend on the forest as an important part of their livelihoods and as a safeguard against poverty.
Read the full-lenght document on the Norwegian Ministry of Environment's web page