On 25.1.2019, the Prime Ministers of Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark signed ‘Declaration on Nordic Carbon Neutrality’ in which they commit to ‘assess in 2020 the scenarios for how the Nordic countries can achieve carbon neutrality, including implications for various sectors’.

Nordic Clean Energy Scenarios 2020 (NCES2020) will generate neutral, unbiased, non-prescriptive analysis to provide solid, scientific input to the political debate on energy technology and a carbon neutral Nordic area. NCES2020 will develop carbon neutral scenarios and CO2 pathways for the Nordics that are compatible with limiting climate change to below 1.5 oC.

It will contribute to strengthening Nordic cooperation and expertise in energy modeling; provide a comprehensive overview of energy technologies, their costs, greenhouse gas reduction potential and resource potential.

In addition, the project aims to improve the sharing of data and statistics between the Nordic countries.

On 25.1.2019, the prime ministers of Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark signed the ‘Declaration on Nordic Carbon Neutrality’ in which they commit themselves to work towards a carbon-neutral Nordic region.

To assist this effort, the prime ministers commit themselves ‘to assessing in 2020 the scenarios for how the Nordic countries can achieve carbon neutrality, including implications for various sectors’.

It is the ambition that Nordic Clean Energy Scenarios 2020 (NCES2020) will deliver neutral, un-biased, non-prescriptive analysis to provide solid, scientific input to the political debate on energy technology and a carbon neutral Nordic region.

The overall objectives of the work are to:

(i) develop carbon-neutral energy scenarios for the Nordic region assessing ‘how the Nordic countries can achieve carbon neutrality, including implications for various sectors’, as expressed in the Nordic prime ministers ’Declaration on Nordic Carbon Neutrality’ from January 2019. For this purpose, a carbon budget for the Nordics that is compatible with the Paris Agreement and the findings of the IPCC Special report on global warming of 1.5 oC will be established;

(ii) contribute to strengthening Nordic cooperation and expertise in energy modelling and further develop cooperation between Nordic energy modellers and energy model research communities;

(iii) identify and analyse energy technologies with significant global and Nordic climate change mitigation potential. Assess past, current and future cost and deployment and include assumptions on cost and deployment pathways in the scenarios (i), together with an assessment of the technologies’ energy, resource and carbon mitigation potentials;

(iv) develop a Nordic energy statistics database with aggregated data. Establish a system for the storing, updating and issuing of past (from 1990 if possible) and future statistics and analysis that can track progress on energy technology development and towards the 2020 scenarios and the carbon pathways established in i) and iii).

(v) demonstrate Nordic leadership in energy technology and tackling climate change at a national, regional and global level, through effective, strategic communication.