MONGSTAD, Norway — This Nordic nation offers a window into how an economy fueled by oil and natural gas can attempt aggressive action on climate change.
挪威蒙斯特 - 这个北欧国家提供了一个窗口，了解石油和天然气推动的经济如何能够对气候变化采取积极行动。
Why it matters: It sounds contradictory, but given that our world has remained 81% dependent upon fossil fuels for the past 30 years, cutting greenhouse gas emissions while using these fuels is probably going to be unavoidable. In two separate upcoming decisions, Norway will show the extent to which it’s committed to its climate ambitions and diversifying its wealth, which is largely derived from oil.
重要的原因：这听起来很矛盾，但鉴于过去30年来我们的世界仍然依赖化石燃料81％，在使用这些燃料时减少温室气体排放可能是不可避免的。 在即将发布的两项决定中，挪威将展示其在多大程度上致力于实现其气候目标并使其财富多样化，这主要来自石油。
The big picture: President Trump has said he likes Norway, though it’s not clear why.
- This admiration comes despite the fact that Norway has some socialist policies, most notably its staggering tax rate of 78% on oil and natural gas production.
- The money raised goes into its sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world at nearly $1 trillion.
- That high tax rate was left out of a White House report issued last week seeking, in part, to debunk the notion that Nordic countries have socialist policies by pointing to their low corporate tax rates.
大局：特朗普总统说他喜欢挪威，但目前尚不清楚原因。
尽管挪威有一些社会主义政策，最引人注目的是它对石油和天然气生产的税率达到惊人的78％，但这种钦佩仍然存在。
筹集的资金流入其主权财富基金，这是世界上最大的财富基金，接近1万亿美元。
上周发布的一份白宫报告遗漏了高税率，部分原因在于通过指出其低企业税率来揭穿北欧国家拥有社会主义政策的观点。
Driving the news:
- The Norwegian government will decide this autumn whether its sovereign wealth fund will divest from oil and natural gas stocks. If it does, it would boost efforts around the world to urge investors to drop fossil-fuel investments as concerns grow about climate change.
- Norway is also set to decide in the coming years whether to fund what would be one of the world's most ambitious initiatives to capture and store underground carbon dioxide emissions. The technology is technically possible, but prohibitively expensive in most instances.
- If Norway follows through here, it would be a pivotal step toward showing the financial commitment many experts say is needed to address climate change in our fossil-fuel driven world, including commitments laid out in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
推动新闻：
挪威政府将在今年秋季决定其主权财富基金是否将从石油和天然气股中剥离。 如果确实如此，随着对气候变化问题的关注，它将推动全球各地的努力，敦促投资者放弃化石燃料投资。
挪威还将在未来几年决定是否资助世界上最雄心勃勃的捕获和储存地下二氧化碳排放的举措之一。 该技术在技术上是可行的，但在大多数情况下却过于昂贵。
如果挪威紧随其后，这将是显示许多专家所说的在我们的化石燃料驱动的世界中应对气候变化所需的财政承诺的关键一步，包括2015年巴黎气候协议中的承诺。
Between the lines: Inaction on either of these fronts would raise a difficult prospect: If Norway — rich from its fossil fuels and genuinely ambitious about addressing climate change — doesn’t follow through, who would?
在这两条线之间：对这两个方面都采取不作为将会带来一个困难的前景：如果挪威 - 其化石燃料丰富且真正雄心勃勃地应对气候变化 - 没有贯彻执行，那么谁呢？
The intrigue: One misty October morning, I was on a tour of an industrial site here considered the largest test facility in the world for technologies capturing CO2 emissions, 10 times larger than the biggest one in America. Owned by four European energy companies and the Norwegian government, the facility is now a testing groundfor several American companies.
- The Energy Department has this year awarded funding for five U.S. companies to do work here, for a total of roughly $35 million.
- This type of technology is crucial “so that the United States and the world can use fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Steve Winberg, assistant secretary for fossil energy at the Energy Department, who visited Norway this summer.
阴谋：10月的一个朦胧的早晨，我参观了一个工业现场，这里被认为是世界上最大的二氧化碳排放技术测试设施，比美国最大的二十倍大。 该工厂由四家欧洲能源公司和挪威政府所有，现已成为几家美国公司的试验场。
能源部今年为五家美国公司提供资金，在这里工作，总计约3500万美元。
这种类型的技术至关重要“以便美国和世界可以使用化石燃料并减少温室气体排放，”能源部化石能源部助理部长Steve Winberg今年夏天访问了挪威。
Indeed, technology capturing CO2 emissions is vital for oil and natural gas to thrive in a world addressing climate change. Norway’s actions are as much for its own economic survival as they are for the planet.
- Norway’s oil and natural gas sector accounts for almost 40% of its export revenues and more than 15% of the country's gross domestic product.
- That economic backdrop has the government considering divesting from oil and gas stocks in its sovereign wealth fund.
- Norwegian officials say its decision isn’t related to climate change, but that’s a distinction without a difference. Concerns are growing about being too dependent upon oil and gas precisely because the world is looking to curb emissions from fossil fuels.
实际上，捕获二氧化碳排放的技术对于石油和天然气在应对气候变化的世界中茁壮成长至关重要。 挪威的行动与其对地球的经济生存同样重要。
挪威的石油和天然气部门占其出口收入的近40％，占该国国内生产总值的15％以上。
在经济背景下，政府正在考虑剥离其主权财富基金的石油和天然气股票。
挪威官员表示，其决定与气候变化无关，但这是一个没有区别的区别。 人们越来越担心过度依赖石油和天然气正是因为世界正在寻求抑制化石燃料的排放。
“We are so exposed to oil and gas because a large part of our economy is based on oil and gas activities,” Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde, State Secretary of Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, said in an interview after a recent dinner event in Oslo. “It’s a huge misunderstanding. We did not want to withdraw from oil and gas because it’s oil and gas. It’s to be not exposed as much to oil and gas.”
挪威石油和能源部国务秘书Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde在最近的一次晚宴活动后接受采访时表示，“我们对石油和天然气的影响非常大，因为我们经济的很大一部分是基于石油和天然气的活动。” 在奥斯陆。 “这是一个巨大的误解。 我们不想退出石油和天然气，因为它是石油和天然气。 它不会暴露在石油和天然气中。“
What’s next: After the imminent decision about the sovereign wealth fund, the focus will turn to whether the carbon capturing project goes through.
That €1.6 billion proposal includes capturing emissions at two separate facilities — a cement manufacturer and a power plant that burns garbage for electricity — and then storing the CO2 under the seafloor.
接下来是什么：在即将做出关于主权财富基金的决定之后，焦点将转向碳捕获项目是否通过。
这项16亿欧元的提案包括在两个独立的设施 - 一个水泥制造商和一个燃烧垃圾电力的发电厂 - 捕获排放物，然后将二氧化碳储存在海底。
The catch, as Tybring-Gjedde said at the Oslo event, is that the Norwegian government says it can't fund the project on its own.
“It is necessary to do something about the climate that we are looking at,” Tybring-Gjedde said. “However, we need European partners because it will be difficult to carry the financial burden of this project on our own.”
正如Tybring-Gjedde在奥斯陆活动中所说的那样，挪威政府表示它无法独自为该项目提供资金。
“有必要对我们正在关注的气候采取一些措施，”Tybring-Gjedde说。 “但是，我们需要欧洲合作伙伴，因为我们自己很难承担这个项目的财务负担。”
