Eco in Norway: The annual Zero Emission Conference 2011

Lord Anthony Giddens and me / Iselin Rolvsjord Fergestad (photo)

Speakers:
Einar Haandlykken, Executive Director of ZERO
Heidi Sorensen, State Secretary from The Ministry of the Environment
Erna Solberg, leader of the Conservative Party of Norway.
Anthony Giddens, sociologist member of Green Growth Council
Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action
Arnold Schwarzenegger, former businessman, investor and politician
Bunker Roy, founder of Barefoot College
Martha Delgado Peralta, Head of the Mexico City Ministry of Environment
Ole Enger, President & CEO in REC Group
Representatives from the ”Powerhouse-alliance”
Johan Rockstrom, Executive Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Stockholm Resilience Centre

Months have passed, and finally time for delivery again . :) Lots of work has occupied my life in all areas,this blog was a transition from travel to discovery, from meetings to life inventions and insight, and finally from past into presence. In a global, digital age, we need to keep up with the crowds, but not forget ourselves. To bring one`s imagination for real is not very far from computer generated reality of "other self exploration", either, as reality when it appears in nature is completely and fundamentally dependent on balancing energies. Human nature is to create human impact, in positive and negative sence. So the impact must be carefully designed in cooperation with natural flow of life assurements. In no other membership than our "Earth Company" where the executive is not the script writer, but the "structured improvisor".

Zero Conference:
I will give you excerpts from some of their best quotes. The conference http://www.zero11.no/ started out with its executive, Einar Haanlykken from the Zero Organization, and I will further promote his point with the growing abilities of China. As you might guess, Zero Conference is all-business.Or, maybe not. At least, this is macro economy ground zero.

Very similar to the german Econsense (my blog offer: http://ecoiselin.blogspot.com/2010/11/eco-in-germany-econsense-forum-berlin.html ).

Einar mentioned, that China was not the front runners of the industrial revolution. They were not ahead of the technology and media revolution, either. But, they apparently want to be the front runners of the renewables and sustainability revolution! So here they stand first in line, so that they are no longer the country "to be told what to do and where to move". Like Arnold Schwartznegger said at this conference; When we in the western countries have been driving cars for so long, we cannot suddenly tell the chinese to keep biking as usual, when we suddenly found out hundred years later that biking was a very good thing to do.:)

In Norway, we keep waiting for our target group and competitors to grow, before altering into anything like "front running". But with these huge world dominance-competitors and (previously) cold war-enemies like China and the US and Russia (and India), they have another attitude against innovation. We must not forget they are different in strategy than the power we struggle with around in Scandinavian countries.

From his speech to my point: It is important to remember that ethnographic study of innovation and industrial development in Norway, describes domestic innovation as mainly "need driven" . Which means that there are no innovation risks even though innovations exist in big volume (in opposite to Sweden)! As "we argue that innovation activity, by definition, will challenge and sometimes alter established boundaries" (quoted from this very important information of energy innovation and organizational establishment etc.: http://organizinginnovation.wordpress.com/ ).

When something is "need driven", we`d of course not pay attention to the strong rise of solar industry in the rest of Europe, increasing 42 percent in 2010 in Germany alone, with Italy straight behind at 21 percent.  It is soon becoming a competitive source of energy approaching grid parity with nuclear, and we don`t even know it!

In only 3 years, Europe has created 300 000 new jobs in the field of renewables (source: Hedegaard)! Apart from European rise, China wants to be the innovators, so their wind capacity is already on shore as the biggest consumer on earth of wind energy. By becoming a competitive part, China is now no longer a follower of the jet stream, the car industry or the industrial revolution, they are becomming leaders of some kind. And they are dangerously ahead of us, without us even knowing it. That is the price we`ll have to pay , by leaning on some "need driven" activity..

There are much things good, though, about the Norwegian patience. Our hope, is to become the "smartest solution"-maker and marketers. Norway has always been waiting. Always in great observation of others, maybe not carefully, but the observing role has been our brightest function also, with such a great student organization. But what is the fun of experts if experts are singular functional? This is why I cheer formost on entrepreneurs before anyone else.

In our orgs, specialized people with just the brightest ideas and history, remain inside their functional stabs maybe because of their social acceptance fright, and all the gold keep mourning inside with no matrixed crossfading solutions communicated in the public atmosphere to a man-next-door. But I am sure, that we have some golden opportunities here: In 2010, global green revenues increased by 7%,which is more than the Swiss GDP and a world record 400 billion EUR! (Source: Hedegaard)

We just have to look a little above our shoulders for a second, because the EU has a 20 percent renewables target combating the 15 percent emissions in Europe of global emissions, but increased as more industries in Europe are in other countries, so that we are also much more contributing. But the target is set. We have to keep following its tale.

How to develope our agriculture? Take a look at the Barefoot College as example: http://www.barefootcollege.org/ . Why is local contribution and knowledge important? Because, without the local knowledge, such as tribal togetherness, the agricultural spirit will never be delivered from grand-dads to grand-sons, and which is the rutine of the "undeveloped country"-style. So local feed, is needed. Sanitation, clean water, pure local electricity, and fair trade, is necessary. Creativity is not in our hands, but theirs. They already have it, as human beings. Give them the basic standards of life cycling sources, and they`ll soon be your employees! Why should we always think that by holding someone back in line, we come first? By bringing someone down, you hold yourself up?

Reality says: By constructing sustainable agriculture and functionality in developing countries, we give not only them the shed to self-help and sustainability, we also cut our own emissions so drastically, that we could perhaps fly another mile without feeling guilty by doing so. Because this strategy is very similar to Denmark`s shipping sector; pay its oil by offshore windmills giving the same amount ot energy back to the oil company (it is called carbon neutral strategy..), or when I visited the ecovillages last year - almost everyone seemed to agree to have a car in their household - because why not get the goods when you do so much good elsewhere? Like cleaning your waste water from the garage. It is smart - simply that !