The agreement, signed in Stockholm, comes more than five years after it was first mooted and more than three years after the Norwegian government provoked fury among opposition politicians, energy suppliers and climate change fanatics when it abandoned the plan, arguing that it would be "too expensive for Norwegian consumers and industry".

Green certificates are – like tradable CO² quotas, and indeed almost anything to do with the "global warming" industry – virtually incomprehensible even (one suspects) to those who administer and profit from them.

The theory is that by separating the eco-friendly aura surrounding wind or solar power and the like from the actual energy generated, this aura can then be bought and sold and the proceeds used to subsidise the inherently uncompetitive "renewable" technology.

Nonsensical though it may be in most respects, there are at least a couple of lessons to be drawn here.

The first is that the course of true love between Norwegians and Swedes ("söta bror", as the former call the latter: "sweet brother") seldom if ever runs smooth, however relentless the claptrap about "Nordic cooperation".

The second is that the consumer will pay, in the form of even higher energy prices up here at the top of the world where just keeping warm in winter eats up an obscene proportion of household income... or rather siphons it off into the pockets of the global warming industry and all who sail in her.

Source: Ends Europe (subscription only) http://www.endseurope.com/

---