Those Damned Vikings and Their Carbon Taxes

What's wrong with those backwater pinkos in longboats?   Don't they know that socialism doesn't work?   Can't they get it through their Scandinavian skulls that they're supposed to be dying off prematurely in poverty?

Apparently not.

Not only are the Norse awash in Kroner that they're setting aside for future generations, they're also taking serious action on climate change.   Norway has just announced it will be doubling its carbon tax to $24 Cdn per tonne.

Norway will also plough an extra £1bn (Nkr10bn) into its funds for climate change mitigation, renewable energy, food security in developing countries and conversion to low-carbon energy sources, Environmental Finance reported.

It will step up spending on new projects to combat deforestation in developing countries to £44m, taking up its spending overall on forestry programmes to £327m. Previous forestry projects have involved Brazil, Indonesia and Ethiopia.

The Oslo government is also to spend £69m on buying carbon credits in 2013, to help offset its emissions, force through new building regulations to make all new homes carbon-neutral by 2015 and increase efforts to heavily cut emissions from cars, switching to electric vehicles.