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Business Daily: Norway's Energy Wealth

23/11/2009

Norway's Energy Wealth

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Norway's Energy Wealth

Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg talks about energy and the environment.

How does Norway balance the need to find new oil and gas fields, with the need to protect environmentally sensitive areas in the Arctic? 
We ask Norway's Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg.

Even though more economies have been emerging from recession, many of them are still stuck with two intractable problems: painfully high unemployment and vast public debts - the price of all those stimulus measures. That's not the case for Norway. 

It still has the lowest jobless rate in Europe and its stimulus money came out of the 400 billion dollar wealth fund which holds surplus earnings from its North Sea oil and gas exports.  

However its oil and gas revenues have been declining, and in future Norway must find new energy fields, if it's to maintain its pot of gold. That has led to controversy about whether to exploit sensitive new areas in the Arctic. 

Jens Stoltenberg is Norway's Prime Minister. His Labour Party is the largest party in the new coalition government, formed after September's elections. He discusses Norway's economic health, the balance between new energy fields and protecting the environment, and the country's plans to become carbon-neutral by the year 2030. 

And, the BBC's Candace Piette reports from Bolivia on its reserves of Lithium, a metal used in batteries, of everything from mobile phones to electric cars.

Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times muses on whether being permanently 'chilled' is bad for your job prospects.

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