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Ten highlights from the Zero-Conference

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Norway’s largest climate conference, the Zero-Conference was held on the 23rd and 24th of November. Here are ten of the many highlights from the conference.

 

1.   Climate Denial 2.0

The CEO of Zero, Marius Holm, held an inspiring opening speech of the conference. He presented two different front pages of “The Economist” in 2050. One titled “Norway’s decline – How the richest country in the world lost its bet against the sun”, and the other “Norway’s green miracle – Norway’s march from oil to clean tech leader”. He also spoke about the term “Climate Denial 2.0”. In Norway, the debate on whether climate change is man-made or not is done and dusted. Instead we have climate denial 2.0; the belief that the profit from oil and gas will sustain, also in a world devoted to reduce the effects of climate change.

See Marius Holm’s presentation here.

 

2.   The unveiling of Opel’s new electric car, the Ampera-e

According to Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, the CEO of Opel, Ampera-e will revolutionize electrical mobility in Europe. It will be launched in April 2017, and the first country out is Norway. It has a 60 kWh battery, which gives it a theoretical range of more than 500 kilometres. This is far more than its competitors in the same segment. The Ampera-e can be a game-changer for electric vehicles.

See the presentation of Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann here.

 

3.   The Post-Paris Paradox

Laurent Fabius, who led the climate negotiations during COP 21 in Paris, spoke about what we have gotten from the Paris agreement one year after the first universal climate-change related agreement in history was signed by 195 countries. He pointed at three significant progresses we have had; the quick ratification that allowed the agreement to come into force the 4th of November this year, the agreement in Montreal on carbon emissions in the airline-sector and the agreement in Rwanda to eliminate harmful HFCs.

However, Fabius also talked about the post-Paris paradox. Firstly, each year is getting warmer than the previous. The 1.5 degree target can be reached already in the 2030s, and the 2-degree target can be passed by 2050, fifty years before the intended target. The deterioration is much worse than imagined, “the colour of the barometer is deep red”. Secondly, the current state of the energy mix is worrisome. Renewable energies are developing fast, but 82 % of the entire mix is still fossil fuel based. Thirdly, at the top of these paradoxes, a backlash is feared; Trump’s climate scepticism. According to Fabius it is crucial that the US, as the 2nd largest polluter in the world, stays on board.

Finally, Fabius’s short and strong message was: “We cannot afford four years of inaction, we cannot turn back, we cannot slow down at the very moment where all of us need to speed up the pace”.

See Laurent Fabius here.

 

4. Making aviation electrical

Outside the conference venue a large tent was raised to host the Zero-Expo; an exposition for technology developers, industry and the public. One of the stands that received a lot of attention was the Airbus E-Fan. Even the Crown Prince Haakon tried to sit in the cockpit of Airbus’s first electrical plane. It can fly for about one hour (it has already crossed the English Channel), and can also be built as a hybrid with a small engine to charge the battery for range extension.

Read more

 

5. Transforming Everything

Zero, Telenor and Kjeller Innovation chose the start-up Zaptec as the winner of their Greenovation competition. The core technology of Zaptec is a new transformer technology. It is compact and efficient, and according to CEO Brage W. Johansen it is 10 times lighter than a conventional transformer, uses 100 times less copper and iron and is 50 % more efficient. However, it is not only a fancy technology existing on PowerPoint slides. It has already led to a smart charging station for electric vehicles called the Zapcharger.

See Zaptec’s presentation here and learn more on their websites.

 

6. China at a green milestone

Peggy Liu is the Chairperson of JUCCE, the Joint US China Collaboration on Clean Energy. At the Zero-conference she spoke about the massive developments we can see in China. Between 2015 and 2022 China will spend 6.75 trillion dollars on urbanization; on highways, airports, skyscrapers and high speed trains connecting all the large cities in China. China is also investing heavily in clean technology and has really become the world’s renewable powerhouse. Through five year plans, in which they use the term “slow growth”, China wants to replace today’s unsustainable growth with large developments in clean industry and clean infrastructure. Peggy Liu said that China has peaked oil demand, and can reach 60 % renewables in 2050. She also said, to massive applause from the audience, that China recently decided to shut down several Gigawatts of coal power.

See Peggy Liu here

 

7. Why investing in fossil fuels is Risky Business

Anthony Hobley, the CEO of Carbon Tracker Initiative, compares oil, coal and gas reserves to nuclear warheads, both being capable of destroying the planet several times over. He also says that investors are getting worried of “stranded assets” in the fossil fuel industry, with 2 trillion dollars of assets in danger of becoming worthless.    

See Hobley’s presentation here

 

8. From fossil transport to smart, green mobility

A very interesting session was devoted to green and smart transportation. Key aspects were public transport, the transition to climate friendly transportation technology and shared mobility. Julie Andersland from the Bergen City Government spoke about Bergen’s plans to become fossil free in 2030, and about their efforts on shared transport, cycling and facilitating for clean transport through public mobility stations.

Peggy Liu from China, Arwina de Boer from the Netherlands, Kathrine Marie Fjendbo Jørgensen from Denmark and Keane Gruending from Canada shared experiences of green transportation from their countries. de Boer spoke about the transition to electrical buses in Eindhoven, Fjendbo Jørgensen told us about car sharing in Copenhagen and Gruending explained Vancouver’s ambitions to reach 100 % renewable transport by 2050.

We then returned to Norway and the CEO of Ruter, Bernt Reitan Jenssen. He showed how public transport in the capital of Norway has been able to absorb the increase in traffic, and how Ruter will make a greener Oslo and Akershus. In Rogaland, Espen Strand Henriksen from HjemJobbHjem is trying to motivate employees in the region to drive their cars less.

Olav Madland finished the session by speaking about autonomous vehicles. Autonomous buses are already being demonstrated in several Norwegian cities, and are poised to lead to monumental changes in the transport sector.

 

9. The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Smart-phones, robotics, artificial intelligence, 3-D printing, nanotechnology and the internet of things are all keywords from the session on digitalisation. In this session it was discussed whether digitalisation is important for climate, or just important. Lars Johan Andresen from Siemens explained how all transport can run on electricity, and how big data and autonomous vehicles can help reduce emissions. Aleksander Mortensen showed how Tomra can increase resource productivity by automatic sensor based waste-sorting on an element basis. In addition, Thina Saltvedt from Nordea spoke about how digitalisation and disruptive technologies will lead to large reductions on oil demand, and how it will peak before 2030.

 

10. “Why I don’t care about climate change”

See David Saddington on why he doesn’t care about climate change, and why you shouldn’t either.