Environment at a Glance: Norway
Table of contents
The OECD Environment at a Glance Country Notes are designed to support transparent, evidence-based information. They provide concise and descriptive overview of progress across major environmental issues, including climate, air quality, freshwater resources, waste and the circular economy, and biodiversity conservation. They feature selected environmental indicators, building on harmonised datasets available on OECD Data Explorer. Differences with national data sources can occur due to delays in data treatment and publication, or due to different national definitions and measurement methods. See the Reader’s guide to the Environment at a Glance Country Notes for more information.
Norway has an open economy with a large petroleum sector. It is among the richest OECD countries and one of the world’s largest energy exporters, with most crude oil exported to other European countries. Income inequality is lower than in most advanced economies and the economy has become increasingly diversified. Services accounts for almost two-thirds of economic activity, industry for about one third (including mining and construction) and agriculture, forestry and fishing for about 2%.
Norway has a coastline of nearly 29 000 km, including fjords and bays, and invests heavily in developing a sustainable maritime sector. After a slight decrease due to the 2008-09 financial crisis, gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a slightly lower rate than the OECD average. The country recovered faster than most countries from the COVID-19 pandemic slowdown.
Norway has a population of around 5.4 million people; about 80% of whom live in urban areas, within 10 km of the coast. It has the second lowest population density in Europe. Due to harsh climatic conditions, a large part of the country is unsuitable for settlement. Norway’s northern areas are sparsely populated and are the traditional home of the Sami minority. Population growth is slow but steady. It is expected to reach close to 6 million by 2050.
One of the world’s northernmost countries; Norway extends beyond the Arctic Circle. Despite being dominated by forests and mountains, it has a rich landscape diversity, particularly in the southern regions. It contains the largest and most pristine representations of many European landscape types. Arable land represents less than 3% of the total land area.
While not a member of the European Union (EU), Norway is part of the EU internal market through the Agreement on the European Economic Area and implements large parts of EU environment and climate policies. It also has a long tradition of using economic instruments to support environmental objectives. Norway has a well-functioning environmental governance and management system with a high level of co-operation, active public participation and robust advisory bodies.
Due to oil production, per person production-based (i.e. produced within the territory) GHG emissions remain well above the OECD average. Demand-based emissions (or footprint, i.e. including emissions incorporated in imported goods) are also well above the OECD average.
Norway has decoupled greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from GDP growth since 2015. After peaking in 2007, domestic GHG emissions have declined, albeit more consistently in the second half of the 2010s. Total emissions (excluding land use, land-use change and forestry - LULUCF) decreased by 17.7% during 2000-24. The country’s large forest areas provide a substantial carbon sink, representing over a third of GHG emissions, although removals have been falling since 2010 as forests mature, increment slows and natural mortality increases.
Energy industries, dominated by oil and gas production, are the largest emitting sector. The expansion of the offshore petroleum resulted in higher carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy use, both in energy industries and transport. The transport sector contributes a quarter of emissions, followed by industrial processes and product use (19% of the total in 2024, excluding LULUCF, mainly production of metals and chemicals) and agriculture (10%, mostly enteric fermentation and agricultural soils). The structure of emissions is expected to remain substantially unaltered by 2030 (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022). The downward trend in transport from 2015 largely reflects increased sales of electric vehicles, as well as higher biofuel blending requirements that boosted the use of biodiesel and bioethanol and reduced CO2 emissions. The decline in industrial process emissions since 2000 is mainly due to plant closures and production cuts in the metal industry (Norway, 2026).
Norway has one of the most decarbonised power sectors of Europe and among OECD countries, thanks to the widespread use of electricity from renewables – primarily hydropower. Fossil fuels represented less than half of total energy supply (TES) in 2025. Coal made up about 3% of TES during the past few decades. In 2021, the government announced the closure of its only coal-fired power plant in Svalbard. Norway does not use any nuclear power (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
After Iceland, Norway has the second largest share of renewables, representing 52.3% of its energy mix and 98.8% of its electricity output. It is the largest hydropower producer in Europe and among the top 10 worldwide. The share of wind power is rapidly increasing. Norway is energy self-sufficient with a surplus of renewable electricity in normal years (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
Norway’s emissions and intensities of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulphur oxide (SOx) and black carbon have all decreased over the past decade. Norway reached its air emission targets for 2020, except for ammonia (NH3). Most emissions of black carbon originate from the transport sector and wood combustion in residential heating. Both emission sources have been considerably reduced. While Norway failed to meet the Gothenburg Protocol target on NOx emissions in 2010, the country has reduced its NOx emissions by 43.7% since 2005. The NOx tax and the Business Sector’s NOx Fund contributed to reducing emissions in the business sector, including shipping, while supporting the phasing-in of new technology. Both measures helped Norway meet the 2020 Gothenburg Protocol target. The country also reached its 2020 Gothenburg Protocol objectives for sulphur dioxide (SO2) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) but not for ammonia (NH3) emissions (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
Norwegians enjoy good overall air quality. Premature death attributed to fine particles (PM2.5) exposure in Norway is less than one-third the OECD average. Average population exposure to PM2.5 in large Norwegian regions remains above the guideline value of 5 µg/m3 recommended by the World Health Organization, but western and northern regions are close to achieving it.
Norway complies with EU directives on air quality standards. In addition, the country has set more ambitious local and national targets, supported by excellent nationwide air quality monitoring services. In 2021, Norway’s four major cities all ranked in the top 20 of the European City Air Quality Index. Nevertheless, nearly all larger cities in Norway face localised air pollution problems and periodic worsening of air quality with high peak PM10 concentrations during winter and into spring (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
Norway has abundant water resources and is endowed with a large number of lakes and river habitats. Intensity of water use (abstractions as percentage of available resources) continues to be among the lowest in among OECD countries. However, water abstraction for public supply per person, is among the highest across OECD countries, due to high water consumption from households and significant water losses. Leakage from the drinking water supply system is estimated at 30%. This represents not only a significant loss of water resources but also a potential risk for microbiological contamination in drinking water. Nevertheless, the supply of drinking water is good: nearly 90% of Norwegians have access to treated drinking water from waterworks with high quality standards. Surface water provides 90% of drinking water (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
Most people are connected to public wastewater treatment. However, only around two-thirds of the population is connected to at least secondary wastewater treatment, which is one of the lowest shares across OECD countries. The share of primary wastewater treatment is particularly high in remote areas. Some 350 000 treatment plants deal with wastewater from about 800 000 people who live in sparsely populated areas. New independent treatment systems are also being built for individual houses and cabins, while other buildings are connected to the public sewerage system. The country’s ageing sewage and drinking water infrastructure requires urgent upgrades. It also needs to adjust to new climate challenges, such as increased precipitation, floods and rising sea levels (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
The average Norwegian produces among the highest amounts of municipal waste in the OECD, due to a high level of consumption and the inclusion of some waste from the service and industry sectors in the definition1. The decrease in 2020 is due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions, which led to an increase of waste generated by households, but also to a decrease of municipal waste from other sources, in particular services (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
Nearly half of municipal waste is treated by incineration with energy recovery, while landfilling has become marginal following a ban introduced in 2009. The country has excellent waste treatment facilities, with cutting edge technology for waste sorting. In 2022, the government introduced a tax on CO2 emissions from waste incinerators (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
Norway has one of the world’s highest material consumption rates and a high material footprint per person. Material productivity is however higher than the OECD average. More than half of the materials extracted are exported, in particular fossil energy (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
Norway contains a wide range of climatic conditions, landscapes, vegetation and land use in close proximity, making it one of the most diverse landscapes in Europe. More than one-third of the bioclimatic variation in all of Europe and North Africa is represented within mainland Norway. In addition, it contains the largest and most pristine representations of many European landscape types. Consequently, Norway plays an important role in landscape and species conservation for the whole continent. Although land take is relatively low compared to other European countries, land-use changes in forestry and in agriculture, as well as changes in built-up areas for housing and road purposes, are important drivers of habitat loss (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
A large proportion of Norway’s red-listed species has declining populations, generally because of habitat loss, degradation or fragmentation, due to human activity. Of the nearly 3 000 threatened species in the 2021 Red List, nearly 10% are critically endangered, about one third are endangered and half of them are vulnerable. In 2021, about a third of amphibians, one quarter of mammals, bird species, mosses and plants were threatened. The share of threatened species in all of these categories has increased since 2015. The total number of assessed species has also increased.
Norway’s profile is overall similar to its Nordic neighbours, with a comparatively large share of threatened birds. Most threatened species are associated with forest, cultural landscapes (semi-natural areas or open land used for agriculture) and mountains, and to a lesser extent with wetlands and marine and coastal waters. Threatened species are found mainly in the southern regions where species diversity is high and human activity widespread (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022)
Protected areas make up just over 17% of Norway’s mainland area. This is above the OECD average. Considerably larger portions of land area in Svalbard (65%) and Jan Mayen (nearly all) have been protected for several decades. However, protected areas are not entirely representative of all landscape types, and forest protection is about half the national target of 10%. Moreover, nearly one third of protected areas are at risk of degradation and require additional action to secure their conservation values.
Norway is well below the OECD average for marine protected areas and failed to meet the 2020 Aichi target. Only a small share of territorial waters is protected, though Norway has committed to preserving 30% of marine areas. The large majority of Svalbard’s and all of Jan Mayen’s territorial waters are protected areas.
Only about 0.35 % of the country’s land is covered by protected areas that have had management effectiveness assessments2 and the same is true for 0.01% of the exclusive economic zone
This section shows selected policy instruments based on data available for most OECD countries and does not provide a complete overview of countries’ policy mix to achieve their environment-related objectives. Interpretation should consider the country specific context.
Norway is a pioneer in using economic instruments for environmental protection to encourage innovation and internalise some of the environmental costs of harmful activities. It was among the first countries to introduce a carbon tax in 1991. Since then, the country has introduced many other environment-related taxes.
As in other OECD countries, energy-related taxes, including taxes on road transport energy, make up the bulk of environment-related taxes, followed by transport taxes; only a small portion comes from waste and other pollution and resource taxes.
Norway’s share of environment-related taxes in total tax revenues and GDP is below the OECD-Europe average and has drastically decreased over time. This decrease is partly due to the fact that taxes effectively contributed to reducing environmental harmful activities, and thereby undermined their own tax base, as illustrated in the example of forgone tax revenues in relation to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs).
While energy and pollution-related taxes have increased since 2012, transport-related taxes have declined since 2004 due to Norway’s generous support for ZEVs. The related tax revenue losses represented close to a third of environmental tax revenue. Moreover, the estimated tax expenditure does not include the full economic advantage given to low- and ZEVs for many years. The overall advantage is nearly three times higher than the value added tax-related tax expenditure (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
Norway aims to provide a long-term perspective on carbon pricing. It thereby provides a strong price signal to encourage increased investments in renewable energy and low-carbon technologies. Norway’s Climate Action Plan 2021-30 proposes to gradually raise the carbon tax on non-ETS emissions from NOK 590 (USD 69) per tonne of CO2-equivalent in 2021 to NOK 2 000 (about USD 233) by 2030. A first step was taken in 2022, when the general tax rate was increased by 28% in real terms.
Norway’s nominal carbon tax rate is among the highest in Europe covering over 80% of national emissions (excluding emissions from the combustion of biomass). Effective tax rates are relatively high compared to other European OECD countries, especially outside the road transport sector. Norway has also introduced a carbon tax on waste incineration and abolished the exemption for the use of natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas in the GHG industry in 2022 (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway, 2022).
In total, 83.4% of GHG emissions in Norway were subject to a positive Net Effective Carbon Rate3 (ECR) in 2023. Explicit carbon prices in Norway consist of emissions trading system (ETS) permit prices and carbon taxes, which cover 83.4% of GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent. With roughly 61.8% of total GHG emissions, coverage is largest for carbon taxes. Fuel excise taxes, an implicit form of carbon pricing, covered 18.4% of emissions in 2023. About 81% of GHG emissions have a Net ECR above EUR 60 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, a mid-range estimate of current carbon costs. Net Effective Carbon Rates are highest in the road transport sector, which accounts for 18% of the country’s total GHG emissions. The Net ECR is on average positive in all sectors (OECD, Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down, 2024).
The total amount of Norway’s public support for business research and development (R&D) has increased by over 50% between 2015 and 2020. Spending for environmental objectives represented 2.4% of total public R&D in 2025. Public funding in renewables has been increasing since 2000. It notably targets the development of energy and climate technology with a view to supporting lasting climate-friendly market changes. The state-owned enterprise Enova provides funding for new technology development, supporting nearly 4 000 projects. Moreover, a Green Platform encourages investment and innovation in all sectors. The platform aims to stimulate bigger and more rapid investments from companies in green sustainable solutions and products. Other measures funded investments in key infrastructure sectors such as green maritime transport.
Norway is a relatively minor player in environmentally related patenting activities. On average, less than 150 inventions have been filed annually for protection in at least two jurisdictions by national inventors since 2010. On the other hand, the share of environmentally related inventions in total inventions has surpassed the OECD average in 2018, to stand at 11.2% in 2023.
Norway’s development programme focuses on climate change and renewable energy, global health, gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights, food security, reducing inequality and humanitarian assistance. Norway is committed to spending 1% of gross national income (GNI) as international support for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, placing it among the Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) most generous providers of official development assistance (ODA). Norway’s total ODA represents 1.03% of GNI – the highest ODA/GNI ratio among DAC members. Despite being a priority, the share of bilateral ODA targeting climate has decreased during 2013-20, to increase again, to reach 32% in 2023-24, a not particularly high share by DAC standards. By contrast, the share targeting biodiversity has remained stable, at 17.3% in 2023-24, a relatively high share (OECD, 2026).
References
Hockings, M., & al, e. (2006). Evaluating Effectiveness. A framework for assessing management effectiveness of protected areas. 2nd Edition. IUCN. Retrieved from https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/PAG-014.pdf
Norway. (2026). Greenhouse Gas Emissions 1990-2024, National Inventory Document. Norwegian Environment Agency. Retrieved from https://unfccc.int/documents/656064
OECD. (2022). Environmental Performance Reviews: Norway. OECD Publishing, Paris. doi:10.1787/59e71c13-env
OECD. (2024). Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down. OECD Series on Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation, OECD Publishing, Paris. doi:10.1787/b44c74e6-en
OECD. (2026). Development Co-operation Profiles. OECD Publishing, Paris. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/development-co-operation-profiles_04b376d7-en/norway_08191fd9-en.html
Further reading
CBD (2022), Country profiles: Norway, https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=no#facts
IEA (2017), Energy Policies of IEA Countries: Norway 2017 Review, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-policies-of-iea-countries-norway-2017-review
OECD (2023), OECD Inventory of Support Measures for Fossil Fuels: Country Notes, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5a3efe65-en
OECD (2022), OECD Economic Surveys: Norway 2022, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/df7b87ab-en.
OECD (2021), Policies for the Future of Farming and Food in Norway, OECD Agriculture and Food Policy Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/20b14991-en
UNEP-WCMC (2024), “Protected Area Profile for Norway”, the World Database of Protected Areas, www.protectedplanet.net
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← 1. Break in time series in 2016.
← 2. Protected Area Management Effectiveness evaluations, can be defined as: “the assessment of how well protected areas are being managed – primarily the extent to which management is protecting values and achieving goals and objectives" (Hockings & al, 2006).
← 3. Effective Carbon Rate (ECR) is the sum of fuel excise taxes, carbon taxes and tradeable permits that effectively put a price on carbon emissions. The Net ECR equals the ECR minus fossil fuel subsidies that decrease pre-tax fossil fuel prices.