Norway may buy European carbon permits and retire them to achieve its promised cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said last week. "The only way that Norway could achieve what it wants to achieve and overcome its membership of the [European Union emissions trading scheme] is to go into the market, buy permits and cancel them," said Simon Upton, head of the OECD environment directorate. Norway's national emissions goal, which Upton called "problematic," is for a 30 percent reduction below 1990 levels by 2020. Greenhouse gas emissions, which totaled 51.3 million tons in 2009, will have to reach 39.8 million. Domestic options for cutting greenhouse gases include setting tougher carbon standards for industries covered by the emissions trading scheme than those set in the EU. However, such efforts may be extremely expensive: some calculations have shown that cutting down on transport emissions may require a doubling of fuel prices by 2020. The OECD noted that according to a study by the Norwegian government, an emissions price of 200 euros per ton of carbon dioxide would be needed to cut emissions by 12 million tons by 2020. Carbon is currently trading at 16.5 euros a ton. For the full story, see http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/19/us-carbon-norway-idUSTRE74I4UV20110519.