STRATEGY FOR A RENEWABLE AND SUSTAINABLE OSLO

The City of Oslo has high ambitions for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and wants to set clear goals for the path towards a fossil-free society. The goals in 2014 were to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 compared to 1991 levels, and to make Oslo fossil-free by 2050.

COWI assisted the City of Oslo in drawing up a technical paper and a proposal for a climate and energy strategy for Oslo. The project was to form the basis for a transition to a renewable and sustainable society, to take a step closer to the green transformation.

The project involved assembling a factual basis for the transport, construction, resource utilisation, energy and distribution sectors, and using this to design the strategy. The strategy included an analysis to determine which measures would have the greatest positive effect on climate and the environment in the short term (expected effect within 2-7 years), the medium term (7-20 years) and the long term (20-40 years).

Around 40 municipal, state and private enterprises took part in the work in the strategy, and a series of meetings and seminars were held. Since the project finished, the new City Council has stepped up its ambitions.

In an additional recommendation, they suggest halving greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2020 and achieving a 95% reduction by 2030. Oslo was named ‘European Green Capital’ by the EU in 2017.