Cutting Carbon Emissions: Norway is going electric in the air, on the roads and at sea

World
Europe

Now, travelling with an eye on your carbon footprint can still be a daunting task. Can you justify that long-haul flight for this year's summer holiday? Is it time to sell the diesel car and go electric? Some of those tough choices may become easier for some of us sooner than we think. CGTN's Guy Henderson reports from Norway.

It is the world's first commercially available electric plane. And veteran pilot Helge Storflor is taking me for a spin above Oslo in the Alpha G2.

There's only one of them in the whole of Norway now. And it has its limitations.

HELGE STORFLOR ELECTRIC PLANE PILOT "This one can fly for 1 hour, then you need to charge for 1 hour."

Guy: "And how far does that get you?"

"Typically 85 knots at 160kms per hour. So that would take you 160kms."

That's still pretty handy in a country with more than 50,000 islands. Insufficient, though, to meet an ambitious target.

GUY HENDERSON ABOVE OSLO "Norway wants to make all of its domestic flights fully electric by 2040: part of a plan to radically reduce its carbon emissions. One issue springs to mind in here though: there's not much room for more passengers."

That looks likely to change. As big firms spy new opportunities.

KRISTIAN LOKSA HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS, AVINOR "And Siemens and Airbus they expect to be able to fly 100 passengers, 100kms by 2030."

And Norway has a track record of delivering. Successive governments set similar goals on the roads. There are now more electric cars per person here than any other country. That happened quickly says the head of the Electric Vehicle Association.

"In 2012, 3 per cent of car sales were electric. So far this year it's close to 50."

So Christina Bu believes the latest target to sell only zero emissions vehicles by 2025 is realistic.

CHRISTINA BU NORWEGIAN ELECTRIC VEHICLE ASSOCIATION "This is the most interesting thing to learn from Norway: is that consumers might be sceptic about this new thing. But we had this collective shift in our mindset."

Now both Norway – and neighbouring Sweden – plan to slash their emissions at sea too. This Konrad Bergstrom, a high profile Swedish entrepreneur who says it won't just be up to giant shipping firms to help meet those targets.

"Recreational crafts were 26.3% of the carbon footprint, which was higher than aircraft."

This luxury speedboat – the Eelex – goes on sale next year. Bergrstrom says it's ground-breaking.

KONRAD BERGSTROM FOUNDER, X-SHORE "We actually have the technology to make the real change."

Guy: "And you're leading that?"

"We're definitely number one, for sure."

Low emission mass travel – might be closer than you think. GH, CGTN, Scandinavia.