Energy has been and will continue to be a vital part of international politics, economic development and environmental challenges in any foreseeable future. Energy is essential for economic development, growth and welfare. How we deal with energy issues in a global perspective will be decisive in achieving sustainable development.

As I speak, world leaders are gathering in Johannesburg at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Ten years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro we once again need to address the links between energy, the environment and economic development. Unfortunately the progress since Rio has been slower than anticipated! The state of the world's environment is still fragile and the progress in many developing countries has been slower than expected.

To have a constructive debate on the links between these three elements we need to recognise that fossil fuels, at least for the next twenty to thirty years, will constitute the main source of energy in meeting the increasing global demand. Consequently, efficient use of fossil fuels will play a decisive role for developing countries to depart from poverty. Eradicating poverty can, in my mind, only happen through economic growth, for which access to energy is vital.

However, we have to realise that increased use of fossil fuels also causes challenges. For instance, coal, oil, and natural gas all contribute in varying degrees to CO2 emissions, contributing to increasing the level of greenhouse gases. Combining the inevitable continued use of fossil fuels, which follows with economic development, with the need to solve global environmental problems is obviously a challenge. But it is possible! Some might argue that it is a contradiction that a Minister of Petroleum and Energy from a country that currently is the world's sixth largest producer and the third largest exporter of oil speak about sustainable development. Is it possible to combine oil production and consumption with the need to save the environment? I will argue that it is! A sustainable petroleum industry Since the petroleum activity started on the Norwegian Continental Shelf 40 years ago, Norway has emphasised that the petroleum industry should coexist with other interests, such as the fisheries.

Furthermore, we have always aimed at combining the role of being a major oil and gas producer with that of being in the environmental forefront.

The Norwegian Continental Shelf still contains large petroleum resources. Based on these resources, Norway has the potential for at least another fifty years of oil production and a hundred BLOCK 1 - - PLENARIES 29 THE WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY, PERSPECTIVE AND RESPONSE years of gas production. Norway will continue to play a signif

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