Ban petrol cars from 2015, says Norway's Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen

Publication date: 28 April 2009

A PROPOSAL to ban sales of new petrol-powered cars in Norway from 2015 could help spur struggling carmakers to shift to greener models, Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said.

"This is much more realistic than people think when they first hear about this proposal," she said, defending a plan by her Socialist Left Party to outlaw sales of cars that run solely on fossil fuels in six years' time.

"The financial crisis also means that a lot of those car producers that now have big problems ... know that they have to develop their technology because we also have to solve the climate criss when this financial crisis is over," she said.

"That is why we would like a ban from 2015."

Under her proposal, carmakers could only sell new cars from 2015 that run fully or partly on fuels such as electricity, biofuels or hydrogen. Hybrids using fossil fuels and electricity, for instance, would still be permitted.

Ms Halvorsen's party is a junior member of Norway's three-party coalition led by the Labour Party. The 2015 proposal is unlikely to be adopted by the cabinet because it is opposed, among others, by Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Still, Ms Halvorsen said she knew of no other finance minister in the world who was even arguing for such a goal.

"I haven't heard about any ministers. I'm not surprised. We are often a party that puts forward new proposals first," she said.

A 2015 ban had backing from many environmental groups around the world as a way of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: Melbourne Herald Sun