The Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) approved partial adoption of the much contested fourth energy package, including the Renewable Energy Directive II, Energy Performance of buildings and Energy efficiency directives on 13 June 2025, after months of mounting political pressure from the EU, and a collapse of the governing coalition earlier this year. Veyt explained the political crisis triggered in a separate analysis.

The Internal Electricity Market Directive (IEMD) that obliges suppliers to disclose the origin of energy to consumers, was not part of the agenda, due to the controversy surrounding increasing ACER’s competencies for cross-border cooperation. We will aim to provide a follow-up analysis on the implementation of the IEMD when more information becomes available.

The transposition of the IEMD and RED II in the EU Member States was completed in 2020 and 2021, respectively. While not being EU members, EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) are part of the European Economic Area (EEA), allowing them to be part of the EU’s single market. As a result, these countries have an obligation to transpose relevant EU directives into national law, with varying timelines.

Specifically, the Stortinget voted to participate in the EEA Joint Committee to agree on the implementation of the legislations into the EEA Agreement. On 11 July 2025, the Committee approved the adoption of the RED II, now pending its entry into force, which will then be incorporated into the EEA Agreement. Once completed, the RED II and the other fourth package directives (except the IEMD) will become binding.

Afterwards, the legislation will be transposed on national level through amendments to existing regulations; in the case of RED II, this will be done through changes to the Energy Act by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Climate and Environment.

It is difficult to comment when the national transposition would take place. If previous timelines are of any indication, RED I entered into force in the EEA in 2011 and the Norwegian government fully transposed the directive into law one year later.

Market impact

The RED II and IEMD strengthened the role of GOs in the Union, as they require GOs to be used for disclosure of electricity from renewable sources and for energy supplied to consumers under contracts marketed as supplying renewable electricity, including renewable PPAs and retail contracts (see below).

The IEMD regulates the “how” of disclosure, instructing electricity suppliers what information to provide on the consumer’s electricity bills, so that they are aware of the origin of the electricity supply and the environmental impact of their electricity consumption. Specifically, it states that the disclosure of electricity from renewable sources should be substantiated via guarantees of origin. The fact that the IEMD is not yet transposed into national law, mutes demand for RES-E GOs in Norway.

When Norway adopts RED II into law, the legal foundation and role of GOs would be strengthened in the country, potentially contributing to rising liquidity. For context, Norway cancelled close to 35.4 TWh of RES-E GO in the 2024 disclosure cycle (ca. 47 TWh of RES-E GOs in a calendar year) compared to 139 TWh of RES-E consumption.

Earlier this year, the Norwegian government announced targeted measures for the GO market, none of which are set to have a significant impact on the domestic GO demand but were rather designed as a gesture of goodwill towards the Norwegian industry lobby.

The implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) further reinforces GO use by the Norwegian companies, as dual reporting of Scope 2 emissions is enforced. The Norwegian government implemented the directive via changes to the Accounting Act in 2024, with the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) embracing the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) that companies need to employ when preparing their sustainability reports. Veyt’s analysis of the CSRD-compliant reports shows that Norwegian companies changed their reporting practices to comply with the new sustainability reporting standards.