"We want to make people aware of the reality of the energy transition and its speed in order to shed light on where more measures are needed. This is incredibly important and is the main reason for us preparing reports like this," says Sverre Alvik, the head of energy transition research in DNV.
He is talking about the Energy Transition Norway 2022 report prepared by DNV, an independent certification and consulting company, in collaboration with the Federation of Norwegian Industries.
In recent years, the Norwegian government has increased its climate commitments and promised to cut the country’s emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.
The conclusion of the report released in November is clear: the climate measures that have been initiated and announced are insufficient. In addition, Norway is heading towards an electricity deficit in the 2026-2030 period.
Is Norway really on track to meet its own climate goals – in both the short and long term? DNV's Energy Transition Norway 2022 report seeks to provide answers to this.
"DNV's research looks at technology, politics, economics, and behaviour and uses a system dynamics model to create forecasts for the energy transition towards 2050," says Alvik.
Each year, the team creates several corresponding reports aimed at different industries and geographical areas.
Climate has no boundaries
A few days after its publication in November, the report was presented to all the foreign ambassadors in Norway. This was because an international perspective is important when conducting climate and energy research," says Alvik.
"DNV has a presence in over 100 countries. For example, the team behind the report is composed of 10 people from 10 different countries. This is useful when we conduct research in several different geographical areas – everyone has different expertise and perspectives," he adds.
Anne Louise Koefoed, a Danish researcher on DNV’s team, says the international environment is strengthened by the employees' varied education. DNV's expertise covers everything from energy modelling, technology, policy, and sustainability to innovation that is helping to transform the economy and influence the energy transition.
"Energy transition work covers the intersection between politics, society’s ambitions, the market, and technology. The transition is the product of incredibly complex interaction. This means we need deep insights from many disciplines,” she says.
Experts worldwide
Koefoed believes this is one of the reasons why DNV attracts so many good job candidates.
"Part of DNV's strength is that we have experts all over the world with knowledge of everything from US energy policy to the efficiency of wind turbines and safety of hydrogen pipelines," she says, adding:
"We work closely with colleagues from the different regions covered by DNV's forecasts. Having 12,500 colleagues that you can turn to and learn from naturally provides a steep learning curve for those who are curious and interested," she says.
“For this reason, there is a culture of sharing within the company, and the reports created by the research teams are used across countries and sectors. All of them are available to the public.
"As a company, we depend on having committed employees who really want to convey comprehensible and honest information. For us, this is partly in the form of these reports. DNV wants to be a credible reference point, and what we do every day is very meaningful work. At least that’s what I’ve felt since I joined the company 13 years ago," says Koefoed.