Closer partnership on sustainable energy

12.11.14 | News
Summary of the meeting of Nordic ministers with responsibility for energy, Iceland, 12 November 2014.

On 12 November 2014, the energy ministers gathered in Keflavik, Iceland, for a meeting hosted by Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir, the Icelandic Minister of Industry and Commerce.

Renewables account for a greater proportion of total energy supply in the Nordic Region than in most other countries – but, like everybody else, the Region still faces major challenges when it comes to fuel for transport by land, air or sea. To help the Nordic countries meet their energy and climate targets, the ministers agreed to work more closely together on the use of renewables in transport.

“Clean technology solutions and better knowledge partnerships are necessary components of green transition,” the ministers said in a statement. They praised the new strategy from Nordic Energy Research, which focuses on new technology and sustainable solutions.  

The ministers expressed satisfaction with the way that the Nordic countries work together in the electricity market, a partnership they see as providing the basis for an efficient market that will benefit people and businesses throughout the Region. They also underlined the importance of continuing with joint grid planning that seeks to identify Nordic synergies. At the meeting, the decision was taken to prioritise systems management and the integration of more renewable energy. The ministers also attached great importance to continued collaboration on the integration of the Nordic electricity market, and on making progress towards a single European market. Their decisions on electricity are available online, under the Electricity Market Group’s recommendations for the Nordic electricity market.

The ministers agreed that the EU’s recently adopted 2030 framework for climate and energy policies will have a major influence on the Nordic and the rest of Europe, and that it will put pressure on the rest of the world in the run-up to COP21 in Paris next year.

The Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Building, Rasmus Helveg Pedersen, stated that the 2015 Danish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers will follow up on the progress made by the 2014 Icelandic Presidency, and will consider the potential of using biofuels for transport, particularly shipping and air traffic. Priorities for 2015 include Nordic synergies in electricity grid planning, the integration of wind power into the grid, and energy storage and other technologies that will benefit sparsely populated areas such as Greenland and the Faroe Islands.