What can we learn from the past when faced with today’s climate problems? This is the starting point for one of the reports that has been published from the Climplement project in 2020. Here, Jostein Brobakk and Anders Melås study political documents, NOU’s and scientific reports from two previous environmental actions in which Norwegian farmers were involved. Mjøsaksjonen (1973-1982) and the Morsa project (1999-2007) can contribute to a better understanding of the use of instruments in environmental and climate effort, the organization of the work, and the importance of anchoring of climate measures.

First, the review shows that as long as there are subsidies aimed specifically at the problems to be solved, farmers are willing to contribute with their own efforts. These financial support schemes must be long-term, as there is a danger that the motivation to implement measures may disappear if the support scheme does so.

Climate and environmental issues should be understood and anchored locally. In the cases studied, it turns out that it was important for the success that municipalities and local agricultural organizations played an important role in the organization, and that the problems to be solved were broken down from being large and diffuse, to becoming smaller and local. This makes it more manageable, it is perceived as more affordable and the role of individual actors becomes clearer.

Another important learning point from the study was that if it is possible to combine environmental and climate measures that can simultaneously have a positive effect on production and the economy on the farm, it will contribute to a higher degree of implementation. One should seek to identify such win-win situations in the pursuit of good climate measures.

Here you can read the entire report: Today’s climate challenges and previous environmental adaptations in Norwegian agriculture – what can we learn?  (only in Norwegian)