Since the Crown Prince left Fiji, he received a letter from the authorities thanking the Crown Prince for his recent visit to the nation and asking the Crown Prince for help. Earlier this week, the Norwegian Crown Prince visited the country together with the nations of Samoa and Tonga. The tour was to focus on the climate and the sea. Afterwards, he received an open letter from Fiji’s government with criticism of Norwegian oil policy.
The letter stated the following: “As you leave our shores, Your Royal Highness, may we respectfully plead that Norway helps us in the Pacific to retain our proud, rich place in the world, by moving swiftly to eliminate exported emissions and de-escalate fossil fuel extraction.”
The open letter was published in the newspaper “Islands Business” and written by Vice President Seini Nabou of the nation’s largest opposition party, the National Federation Party.
His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon on his Pacific tour. Photo: Sven Gj. Gjeruldsen / Det Kongelige Hoff / The Royal Court
In the letter, it is also written: “While many like me applaud Norway as one of the first industrialised nations to formally ratify the Paris Agreement, we also know that it is also actively involved in further opening up its part of the Arctic for oil and gas exploration. This would essentially undermine the Paris Agreement’s decarbonisation goal.”
The Norwegian Crown Prince cannot respond to a political letter, as he is a non-political figure. In Norway, State Secretary Rikard Gaarder Knutsenin, from the Department of Petroleum and Energy, answered the following on questions from the letter on Norwegian TV station NRK:
“We are not going to answer on an open letter to the Crown Prince. However, like the writer of the letter, the Norwegian government is also concerned with climate. Norway was, as is pointed out in the letter, among the first to ratify the Paris Agreement. It points out that the climate challenge can only be solved through global cooperation. All countries, including Norway, must cut their own emissions.”
