Norwegian Pavilion at Bright Green: Opening speech

Your Royal Highnesses,
Excellencies,
Honoured Guests,

The development of new and innovative technologies is a key factor in fighting climate change and preserving the environment. In order to create a more sustainable future, new national and international policies have to be supported by cutting edge technology.

Public and private sector have been working together to create this pavilion. Here, companies present their technology and demonstrate:

• How carbon capture and storage works
• How Norway’s knowledge industry can help build a low carbon economy
• How a large energy utility can improve the efficiency of their power plants
• And we can also see a floating windmill demonstrated – amongst other things.

Norway is fortunate to have a magnitude of natural resources. This carries with it both responsibilities and opportunities: Responsibilities, because natural resources have to be managed in a sustainable manner. Opportunities, because Norwegian companies aim to take a global lead in creating new environmentally friendly technologies and products.

This exhibition brings hope for tomorrow. I have a positive vision of the future and think we have a lot to look forward to. I picture innovation to get more interesting than ever before – and create lots of new job opportunities. The vehicles we will drive will be running on batteries, hydrogen, algae bio-fuels or some other clean energy source. We will have lots of new stuff that we don’t know we need or want today, but that we cannot imagine living without in the future. And most important of all, it will be sustainable. When we buy a product in a sustainable future, we will know that it is clean. That the product did not contribute to harming our environment.

Our trips to Svalbard and Greenland, which Crown Prince Frederik, Crown Princess Victoria and I told about earlier, underlined the connection between climate change and development. We have a great responsibility to do something about the climate situation because the effects are hitting the poor the hardest.

President Barack Obama emphasized in his Nobel Peace Prize speech two days ago that: “There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, famine and mass displacement that will fuel more conflict for decades”.

Fighting climate change means hard work across national borders and sectors. Bright Green is an impressive demonstration of the national efforts that is being made all over the world. It shows great will and innovation. It is inspiring to see the different countries’ contributions displayed – and Norway is pleased to be part of this global picture.

I am confident that Norwegian companies will continue to develop and present to the market sustainable and environmentally friendly technologies and products – which can play an important role in our common fight for the planet.

With these words I declare the Norwegian Pavilion at Bright Green open.