OSLO – The Norwegian Labor Party on Tuesday began coalition talks with other members of the center-left bloc to try to form a government after winning the parliamentary elections with a focus on climate change and oil.
Labor leader Jonas Gahr Stoere will try to address voters’ concerns about global warming and widening the wealth gap, while ensuring that any transition outside of oil production and the jobs it creates is gradual.
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Stoere’s goal is to convince both rural-based centrists and the mostly urban socialist left to join him, which would give his cabinet 89 seats, four more than is needed for the majority in the assembly. of 169 seats.
“There are more things that unite us than divide us,” Stoere told reporters in front of his home in Oslo on Tuesday after speaking with other party leaders by phone.
It must convince them to engage in policies ranging from oil and private property to Norway’s non-member relations with the European Union.
In particular, Stoere needs to convince them to commit to energy policy, including where to allow exploration and at the same time reduce emissions.
“The likely commitment has to do with restricting exploration, and less explored and mature areas are easier to stop exploring,” said Baard Lahn, a researcher at Oslo-based climate thought group CICERO.
“The industry has also indicated that they are less interested in these areas at the moment. This is a possible outcome, but exactly what it will look like, there are many possibilities.”
Norway produces about 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, accounting for more than 40% of export earnings.
But most large parties also believe that oil will play a smaller role over time and hope that the engineering knowledge of oil companies can be transferred to renewable energy, including offshore wind.
Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg said she would step down after eight years in power as soon as a new government is ready, with a Stoere-headed cabinet that can take office in mid-October.
Monday’s result means Labor needs neither the ruling Marxist Red Party nor the anti-oil green party, thus reducing the pressure for big changes.