The background of Norwegian Carbon Credit Program

In the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2008-2012), Norway signed agreements with total deliveries of about 23 million carbon credits, of which some 21 million are needed to meet the target of overachieving Norway's unilateral pledge by 10 per cent.

In the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2013-2020), Norway will need to procure carbon credits in order to meet the target of 30% emission reductions by 2020. The Ministry is authorised by the Parliament to procure 60 million credits generated up to and including 2020. Final procurement target is yet to be determined, inter alia pending Norway's contribution of AAUs to cover emissions in the EU ETS.

The Ministry has a mandate to procure carbon credits from new, not yet commissioned, projects and credits from vulnerable projects. Vulnerable projects are registered and commissioned projects that are at risk of suspending operations due to the current low market prices.  Expected deliveries from vulnerable projects which have been contracted through NoRCAP  are estimated at 31 million CERs (June 2016). A further 3.9 million CERs from new projects are expected to be delivered from the Carbon Partnership Facility and Prototype Carbon Fund (World Bank), and NeCF (NEFCO). Contracts with an estimated delivery of some 10 million CERs have so far been contracted under the bilateral program and contracts with a further 6 million CERs are currently under negotiations (August 2016).