Opening of the 24th Electric Vehicle Symposium

Your Serene Highness
Mr President,
Excellences,
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is quite rare I have the opportunity to follow the process up to a conference the way I have been able to towards EVS24. On Monday, I went for a ride in one of the hybrid cars of the Viking Rally on its first stage from Oslo to Drammen. The car arrived here in Stavanger yesterday. The EVS Viking Rally has been on with 20 cars on the 570 km Hydrogen Highway from Oslo to Stavanger plus 7 joining in the Electric Road.

The fact that the hydrogen highway is now open between Oslo and Stavanger is a milestone in the important work to make low emission cars a real alternative on the road. The development of battery, hybrid and fuel cell electric vehicles is an important part of the solution to the environmental challenges we face in the transport sector.

In my capacity as patron of the Polar Year 2007-2008 I’ve had the opportunity to study closely the effects of global warming and climate change. Last summer, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Crown Prince Fredrik of Denmark and I spent a week onboard a scientific ship in the ocean surrounding Svalbard – a Norwegian island far north of the mainland. At the end of this month, the three of us will do another climate change related trip – this time to Greenland.

Climate change is the ultimate ”tragedy of the commons”. It may seriously set back the achievements we have made in development – like reducing extreme poverty. But climate change can also stimulate the greatest global team building project the world has seen. We have a common challenge that we need broad partnerships to meet. We must work together – across national boarders, sectors, professions and political platforms. The challenge is to find flexible solutions that always nurture the best ideas.

This conference is a good example of the kind of cooperation across sectors and national borders that we need. I look forward to see examples of supreme technology in the exhibition area afterwards.

For the first time, an EVS is arranged north of Berlin. It is notable that the Electric Vehicle Symposium has been arranged through 40 years in a constantly changing world. Those who arranged the EVS for the first time in 1969 must have been visionary and ahead of their time. That is also the trademark of EVS today: It has managed to develop according to change and global challenges. I am pleased to welcome you all to Norway – and hope you will have inspiring days here in Stavanger. I hereby declare the the 24th EVS officially open.