Dear ladies and gentlemen
I would like to thank for the invitation to the conference “Bioenergy 2005” – the most important bioenergy happening in Scandinavia this year. At the same time I do apologise for not being able to participate at the opening of the conference yesterday.

Renewable energy is important. In the political platform for the three parties forming the new Governement in Norway, ambitious goals for energy efficiency and renewable energy plays an important role. These include a goal to contribute to increased co-operation in the field of renewable energy at the international arena. I’m therefore happy to hear that 20 different nations and more than 430 persons do take part in this conference.

We can all readily agree that the world is facing major challenges related to energy in the future.

First, the world is facing substantial environmental challenges due to energy production and use, and in particular greenhouse gas emissions.

Second, to strengthen the world’s vulnerable energy supply is important to secure sustainable economic development. Energy is one of the most crucial commodities for industry, services and households. It is therefore of great importance for all countries that energy in its various kinds is supplied in a reliable, safe and affordable way.

According to the International Energy Agency, the vulnerability in energy supply will increase, and the CO ₂-emissions are estimated to be more than 60 percent higher in 2030 than today, if current government policies do not change. Energy supply based on fossil fuels has been the main key for developing our modern society. An economy exclusively based on fossil fuels has several obvious limitations in the long term perspective.

This gives all nations huge challenges.
Bioenergy can be an important alternative in a future and more sustainable energy supply. On the International Energy Agency’s bioenergy webpage we can read that resources such as forestry and agriculture crops, biomass residues and wastes already provide about 14% of the world's primary energy supplies. Further we can read that bioenergy offers cost-effective and sustainable opportunities with the potential to meet 50% of world energy demands during the next century and at the same time meet the requirement of reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuels.

This shows that there is a large potential in bioenergy, which should created opportunities for a mores sustainable energy supply for many nations

Since I have been given the possibility to speak to an audience dedicated to bioenergy, I will take the opportunity to present why the new Government sees renewable energy and particularly bioenergy as important in our future energy policy.

Speaking for Norway, we have ended up with electricity as a dominating heating source. Our challenge is to revert to more direct heating. By using other sources of heating to a greater extend than today, we can ease the pressure for increased electricity production in the future. To be able to do so, the heating sector must be given satisfactory conditions. The main obstacle to increased use of heat energy in Norway is the lack of efficient distribution systems, both district heating systems and internal distribution systems in buildings. To develop such systems is therefore a crucial point in our energy policy.

To be more concrete, the new Government want to introduce means for increased use of central heating in buildings, and introduce sufficient financial measures for district heating and bioenergy. We also think that it is wise to establish a programme for converting old boilers from oil to bioenergy, and introduce a programme for investments in renewable energy heating systems in the household sector. Further we will increase our national energy agency’s, budget for investments in district heating. The political platform also states that all new or renovated public building above 500 square meters shall have a flexible heating system.

It is obvious that this will be demanding tasks, but it is obvious for me that more bioenergy both is profitable and necessary.

In order to realise our policy we need to find good and lasting solutions. And we need time, co-operation and strong commitments both from the public and private sector. As Minister of Petroleum and Energy, it is therefore of great importance for me to establish a constructive dialogue with the bioenergy industry and the bioenergy experts which are represented here today.

I would like to stress that bioenergy is an international activity and an international resource, international cooperation in this field is therefore an important part of a rational realisation of our goals for the future of bioenergy

Thank you fore your attention, and I wish you all a fruitful conference and enjoyable stay here in Trondheim.

Thank you!