Skip to content
Climate Adaptation:Hitting Net Zero Emissions by 2050
Green
Politics

The World’s Electric-Car Capital Is Having Nasty Fights Over Oil

Norway is rapidly embracing clean energy and electric vehicles, but citizens are deeply divided over calls to stop drilling for oil.

Updated on
All of the major parties in Norway want the oil industry to continue to explore for and develop new fields, but the process of forming a coalition after the September elections could disrupt the status quo.

All of the major parties in Norway want the oil industry to continue to explore for and develop new fields, but the process of forming a coalition after the September elections could disrupt the status quo.

Photographer: Carina Johansen/Bloomberg

In one of the greenest cities in the world, where electric cars abound and almost all carbon emissions will be eliminated within a decade, the debate about climate change is so poisonous that the police are investigating violent threats against one of its top officials.

Lan Marie Nguyen Berg, the Green Party politician who’s a vice mayor of Norway’s capital Oslo and a strong voice for climate policies, has received a stream of hate messages, threats, and racist comments on social media. She’s become a target in large part for highlighting the contradiction at the heart of the Nordic nation’s economy.