Director General, Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise John G. Bernander, the Minister of Trade Trond Giske, and the Minster of Environment Erik Solheim

New Environmental Agreement on NOx

On 14 December 2010, 15 business organisations signed the new Environmental Agreement on NOx with further reductions of 16 000 tonnes of NOx for the period 2011-2017.

These reductions add to the 19 000 tonnes of NOx reductions in the present Environmental Agreement from 2008.

Today fisheries and various kinds of domestic shipping stand for the majority of the implemented measures reducing emissions of NOx. The agreement makes it possible for Norway to comply with its international environmental obligations in the Gothenburg protocol, reducing emissions causing acid rain.

Under the Environmental Agreement from 2008, the NOx Fund has had NOK 1.8 billion at its disposal to support more than 500 environmental measures with expected reductions exceeding 20 000 tonnes NOx.

Long lasting measures
The two Environmental Agreements are much the same, but the new agreement emphasizes measures with lasting or permanent effect on NOx reductions. Further the reductions achieved under the present agreement should be obtained under the new agreement.

Approval by the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA)
As soon as the environmental agreement is approved by the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) it will come into force and the NOx Fund will generate income from the affiliated enterprises which again will finance NOx reducing measures in the years to come, until the end of 2017.

Rates of payment unchanged for 2011
The rates of payment into the NOx Fund in 2011 will remain unchanged at NOK 11 per kg NOx for the offshore industry and NOK 4 per kg NOx for other sectors (fishing, shipping, manufacturing aviation, district heating etc).

New Participant Agreement
Businesses which have been affiliated to the Environmental Agreement 2008-2010 must confirm their continued affiliation to be entitled to a tax exemption from 1 January 2011. This is done by means of a simple affiliation procedure. All enterprises affiliated under the previous agreement will receive an e-mail with instructions on how to proceed to renew their affiliation.  

By renewing their affiliation before 1 July 2011 the enterprise becomes entitled to a tax exemption from 1 January 2011. The new participant agreement is not completely finished, but it will be posted on the NOx Fund’s web page as soon as possible. New enterprises can join the Environmental Agreement 2011-2017 by signing the participant agreement using the same procedure as the one used for the previous 2008-2010 Environmental Agreement. Foreign enterprises wanting to join the NOx Fund need to sign the Norwegian version of the Participant Agreement and submit it to the Fund.


 
Secretary General, Ministry of the Environment, Harald Rensvik and Director General, Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise John G. Bernander.