Svein Gjedrem: Economic perspectives Address by Mr Svein Gjedrem, Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the meeting of the Supervisory Council of Norges Bank, Oslo, 16 February 2006. The Charts in pdf-format  can also be found on the website of the Norges Bank. *  *  *  1. Introduction On the way into this building, we pass a statue of the nineteenth century Norwegian actor Johannes Brun. He performed at Christiania Theatre, which once stood in the square in front of the main entrance. Brun was an acquaintance of Henrik Ibsen, who also worked at the same theatre for a period – part-time as dramatic consultant – when the theatre he had been directing closed. This was a difficult time for our great dramatist, both personally and financially. He was struggling to overcome writer’s block and the public’s preference for the mediocre and the trivial. 1 Nineteenth-century Christiania (now Oslo) was described as “O great and little city! What a cold and surly sky broods over you!”. 2 A bleak time for Ibsen, perhaps. But the Norwegian economy was not faring all that badly. The economic expansion that had begun in the 1820s gathered momentum from the middle of the century. The British navigation acts were repealed in 1849 and the Norwegian fleet was permitted to transport other countries’ goods to and from England. Norway had suddenly become a major exporter of services. The tonnage of the Norwegian commercial fleet increased almost six-fold from 1850 to 1880. 2.
There is a growing momentum in scaling up the green agenda on a global basis, with countries such as Denmark, South Korea, Finland and Germany already embarking on green technology movements in their respective countries. Since 2007, the worldwide market for green technology has grown on an average of 12% annually, and is now worth over EUR2 trillion. By 2025, it is forecasted to double to EUR4.4 trillion. The global market for renewable energy namely wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) and biofuels has grown by more than 30% in the recent few years and is estimated to reach nearly $ billion by 2021 . Economies that have  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  strategically invested in the green technology sector are already reaping the benefits of the transition to green initiatives. Germany, for example, has a green industry growing at an annual average of 12% since 2007 and a global market share of 15%. Green technology companies contributed 11% of its GDP and employing 1.4 million workers. In the case of the solar energy sector, Malaysia is now one of the top producers in PV manufacturing and this industry has generated direct foreign investment of over RM12 billion and created over 10,000 skilled and well paid jobs . Green technology offers specific solutions for pressing ecological and social challenges, and for this reason it is expected to continue to gain global importance.