Belief in technology is dead:

environmentally friendly technology

lives on

Atle Kjærvik

"It is fine that the old-fashioned, naive and destructive belief in technology and progress is dead. At the same time, however, we are more dependent than ever on technology. That is why we need the optimism which we find among engineers at NTH and SINTEF. I believe that the ability of engineers to solve specific environmental technology problems is virtually unlimited. They can do just about anything," says Thorbjørn Berntsen, Norwegian Minister of the Environment, who recently opened Esso's promising new sulphur dioxide scrubber at Slagentangen in Tønsberg. The scrubbing process was developed by Professor Olav Erga and the plant was built by Elkem Technology.

"Our overriding aim must be to develop sustainable technology and manufacturing processes that follow what we call the "cradle to grave" principle. This means that every product must have a documented life-cycle that stays as a whole on the plus side of nature's limits of tolerance. Norwegian paper manufacture is one example of an industry that is in the process of meeting such a goal. Trees are a renewable resource, the energy used by the paper industry is renewable hydroelectric power which is utilized more and more efficiently, chloride bleaching is being replaced by other, environmentally friendly bleaching processes, the proportion of paper that is recycled is increasing and better and better cleansing processes are taking care of environmentally harmful emissions," points out Berntsen.

At the same time, however, he does not believe that it is sufficient merely to make processes and products more environmentally friendly.

"We must also be willing to economize in our use of energy resources and to reduce our consumption of material goods. Instead, we should ensure that goods are shared out more fairly. In the Western World, consumption and waste are reaching meaningless levels, while a large proportion of the population of the world suffers from hunger and poverty. This is morally indefensible, and in the long run, consciousness of this state of affairs might be an element in the degeneration of western culture.

Berntsen's task as Minister of Environment is primarily to encourage the growth of sustainable technology with the help of such methods as his Ministry has at its disposal. These include rules and regulations, conditions attached to the utilization of natural resources and the introduction or removal of taxes.

"The art lies in finding the most efficient methods available at any given time. For example, it may be a better policy to tax the extraction of natural resources, particularly non-renewable resources, rather than taxing labour. Or take the transport sector, for example. The average age of Norwegian cars has become extremely high, but old cars are dangerous, they produce a lot of pollution and are noisy. In environmental terms, new cars with improved combustion and catalytic systems are preferable, so we are going to evaluate measures that will encourage people to change to newer cars, even if this puts more cars on the roads. We have probably reached the point at which the total account will be environmentally positive" thinks Berntsen.

"We will also try to encourage high-speed trains to take over a proportion of the airborne passenger transport sector. As we all know, aircraft are among the worst polluters in existence. A combination of electric high-speed trains and taxes on aircraft emissions could encourage the development of technology that would reduce CO2 and NOx emissions from this source. There is a corresponding problem in shipping," says the minister, who points out that it is very important for research institutes to be aware of the strategic messages that the central authorities send out.

"This is the only way that research programmes such as SINTEF's "Environmentally Friendly Ships" will be timely enough. Unfortunately, we still lack good cooperative routines to ensure that this happens. There is a major challenge here, both for the Ministry of Environment and the research institutes," says Thorbjørn Berntsen, Norway´s Minister of Environment.