Et langskip i klimapolitikken, en opphavsmyte på ville veier

Sammendrag

This article examines the origin myth that the Norwegian Solberg government relied on in naming its carbon capture and storage project ‘Langskip’ in 2020, and what this meant for notions of the historicity of Norwegian and international climate policy. The choice of this name has attracted little public discussion, but the government’s initial justifications for the name gave both Norway and the world a specific historical position. A study of the origin myth that lay at the foundation for this name can thus illuminate the temporal priorities that both guide and limit Norwegian climate policy. The article focuses on the way the name and cover of and the prologue to the Norwegian report to the Storting on the Langskip project expressed these assumptions through analogy and metaphor. It asks: How does the name “Langskip” reflect a particular historical understanding of Norwegian climate policy? In answering this question, the article shows how an origin myth about Vikings laid the foundation for a historical analogy of capability and a metaphor of progress for Norway. It also demonstrates how the space of experience and horizon of expectation of an origin myth can be studied at the intersection of such analogies and metaphors. The article’s main argument is that ‘Langskip’ positioned Norway as a leader in international climate change mitigation through notions of universal historical development, in a way that framed it as a primarily positive endeavor with limited risk.