Norwegian PM wants UK to stay in EU - but back home only 18% of Norwegians would like to join!

The Independent thinks that this is "a blow to Eurosceptics and Leave campaigners":

Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, has said that Britons wishing to leave the European Union next week “won’t like” life on the outskirts of the 28-member state bloc.  
It will come as a blow to Eurosceptics and Leave campaigners who often cite Norway’s relationship with the EU as the model for Britain to emulate. Norway, which rejected joining the bloc at a referendum in 1994, has access to the majority of the continent’s market and is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement.

Ms. Solberg, who already in 2014 declared that she wants to be the politican who takes Norway to the EU - may think that she is coming to the rescue of fellow conservative PM David Cameron with these comments, but her views on EU membership are shared only by 18% of the Norwegians. Even among supporters of Solberg´s own party, only 28% are for Norwegian EU membership!

Ms. Solberg´s advice should be taken with a pinch of salt!

Finally som good news from the Norwegian Nobel Committee - They did not choose Merkel!

The Norwegian Nobel Committee is to be congratulated this year:

A senior Danish lawmaker is applauding that the Norwegian Nobel Committee didn't give the 2015 Peace Prize to German Chancellor Angela Merkel who had been viewed as a favorite for the prestigious award.

Soeren Espersen of the Danish People's Party, which supports Denmark's one-party, minority government, wrote Friday on Twitter: "Joy that Merkel didn't as predicted get the Peace Prize. She has thrown Europe into one of the largest migration disasters in modern times."

 

The Norway Report

The next time you meet a Norwegian in a pub, ask him to pay for the beer. He should be able to afford it:

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, also known as the National Oil Fund has now reached the value of NOK 5000 billion, or USD 818 billion. This was announced Monday, 17 years after the Finance Department deposited the first NOK two billion in the Fund in 1996.

But don't wait for too long - even the owners of  the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund have their problems:

In only 12 years, the oil production in Norway will slow down, and so will the growth of the oil fund. Today's youth will have to pick up the bill.

"When the oil age is over we may have to cut down on our benefits. That could be painful, but it will most likely have to be done sooner or later. The rest of Europe, including our neighboring countries, are already cutting their spending, whereas we simply continue to expand systems that are not sustainable in the long run," says Chief Economist in Handelsbanken Knut Anton Mork.

The Economist has more on why wealth has its problems also in the land of the Arctic Arabs:

The oil boom led to a boom in public spending: since the 1970s the number of people employed in education has doubled and that in health and social services has quadrupled. The public sector continues to account for 52% of Norway’s GDP.
Oil wealth is bringing its own problems. The oil sector is monopolising the nation’s technical talent, with more than 50,000 engineers currently being employed offshore. Property prices are rising by nearly 7% a year. McDonalds charges $7.69 for a Big Mac, against $4.37 in America.

The fund is not without its problems, such as its size (it now accounts for 1% of all the world’s stocks), its leisurely approach (it was slow to exploit the opportunities offered by the 2007-08 financial crisis) and its penchant for blacklisting offending companies. But it is nevertheless one of the best-run in the world. The Norwegians have established a clear division between the finance ministry as owner and the central bank as manager. They are now trying to improve returns and diversify risks.

Norway's new conservative PM Erna Solberg is trying to manage the riches, but it's not easy:

ERNA SOLBERG, Norway’s conservative prime minister, is nothing if not ambitious. After defeating her popular Social Democratic rival, Jens Stoltenberg, in a general election in September, she beat the odds to cobble together a minority coalition at the end of that month. On November 15th she successfully negotiated an agreement on the budget for 2014.
Now she says she wants to wean Norway off its dependence on oil revenue and ease it towards a more balanced economy in which budget shortfalls are not plugged by the wealth flowing from the North Sea. It will be no easy task. The gap between Ms Solberg’s ambitions and actions was highlighted in the budget deal, which saw her depend a bit more on the country’s oil coffers than originally proposed—an extra 3.9 billion kroner ($640m). --

 It got a temporary fillip this week when new data showed the economy had grown by 0.5% in the third quarter instead of an expected 0.4%, but the currency has still dropped by about 10% against the dollar this year. Long gone seem the days during the financial crisis when the krone was regarded as a safe-haven currency.

The country’s weak economic fundamentals are the main reason for the krone’s fall, but there is growing concern that Norway could soon experience a big property crash. Property prices, particularly in Oslo and chichi ski resorts such as Hemsedal, have risen rapidly in the last decade. Peter Hermanrud, chief strategist at Swedbank First Securities, told a conference in Oslo recently that the property bubble could soon burst and that the government’s most likely response would be to cut interest rates and increase its spending from the oil fund—exactly the opposite of Ms Solberg’s stated ambition.

The dark clouds on the horizon do not seem to worry the locals too much, at least not this time of the year:

For the first time since the 1980s, the Norwegian Christmas shopping declined last year. This year, the trend has turned. Talking to TV2, trade organization Virke’s CEO Vibeke Hammer Madsen said that their forecasts for this year indicate an increase of 2.5% to 50.5 billion.
Virke also mapped the areas where most money is spent on holiday shopping. The shops in the Oslo area will sell for 10.900 NOK per capita, providing the highest average in the country. On the other end of the scale, one person in Østfold will spend 8350 NOK on average.

Merry Christmas (shopping) to you all up there in Norway! Enjoy your wealth as long as it lasts, but prepare for a time when you are not able to afford a Swedish butler anymore!

Bill McKibben picks up US $ 100,000 Norwegian prize - and asks Norway to close down its oil and gas industry

This week Eco-fundamentalist Bill McKibben took a high carbon footprint flight to fossil fuel rich Norway - "the country I love the most beyond my own"" - in order to pick up the Sophie Prize, "an international award (US $ 100,000), for environment and sustainable development".

One wonders what the Norwegians thought about McKibben's speech at the prize ceremony, in which he in effect urged Norway to close down to its entire fossil fuel industry - the source of the country's riches:

"And here Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, as the largest single investor on the planet, has a crucial role to play. It is time for Norway to end its investments in fossil fuel. Yes, that wealth was built on oil, mostly in a time when we didn’t understand its peril. But now it needs to be invested in the future, not the past.
Morality demands no less. If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from the wreckage. And if Norway takes this step, it will reverberate. It won’t immediately end climate change; many other strategies are needed."

A huge NO from Norway to the EU

From the country that awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union:

In a fresh poll, seven out of ten say they are opposed to Norwegian membership in the EU.
 
There is a majority against EU membership in all parts of the country, in all age groups and educationallevels. Neither is there a majority for EU in any of the political parties.
Most positive to EU are those who vote for the Conservative Party (Høyre). In this group, 60.8 per cent say they are opposed. Nearly a third would favour EU membership.

Read the entire article here

No additional comment needed.

Researchers in Finland have found a way to combat global warming: Reindeer!

Could Rudolf be the solution in the fight against disastrous global warming?

Researchers at the University of Turku, Finland, have found a way to protect humanity from dangerous global warming - Reindeer! 

According to Professor Lauri Oksanen of the University of Turku, grazing by reindeer keep arctic vegetation in check, thus reducing the solar heat absorption that leads to a self-reinforcing cycle of climate change.

Snow cover and mostly barren tundra reflect large portions of the sun's rays. When darker shrubs and trees spring up in arctic areas they absorb more energy, heating up their surroundings and the earth's atmosphere.

Researchers in Finland have now carried out a comparison between an area in Norway where reindeer are not allowed to graze in the summer, and a similar area in Finland where grazing reindeer have kept shrubs and tree from growing.

They have found that the heat radiated by the overgrown area in Norway is at a much higher level.

"The heat difference between what happens there and in the Finnish area during three spring months, March, April and May, would be enough to melt a cubic kilometre of ice. That is no small matter,” explains Professor Lauri Oksanen.

(image by wikipedia)

A noble gathering of the Order of Mutual Admiration in Oslo

The Grand Master,  Belgian bard van Rompuy, will be presented a medal of gold in Oslo.
(image by Consilium Europa EU)

Almost all members of the Glorious Order of Mutual Admiration of Europe, also known as the European Council, will tomorrow gather in Oslo, the historic stronghold of the western Vikings, founded a thousand years ago by King Harald Hardråde. This meeting extraordinaire has been called by the Grand Master, a Belgian bard by the name of van Rompuy, in order to make it possible for the other members to witness when he receives a medal of gold (192 grams of 18 carat gold) in the presence of King Harald V, head of the Norse Fossil Energy Kingdom. (The Grand Master will be assisted by the Portuguese High Priest Barroso and the minor Teutonic knight Schulz). 

The Grand Master, who upon his arrival in Oslo declared that "the EU is going through a difficult period ", is accompanied by a colourful retinue of court jesters, doorwards, pages and other servants.

Due to internal strife among his tribesmen, Cameron, the chief of the Anglo-Saxon tribes, will not be in attendance. In his place, Clegg, the head of a minor, now almost extinct tribe, will embark on the high carbon footprint journey to the land of the Norsemen. 



PS
The Norse peace medal will, according to still unconfirmed reports, later be on permanent display on the top floor of the new Order building in Brussels, together with other holy relics and documents of the Order.  

Germany on its way to become the country with the highest energy prices

Germany is well on its way to become the country with the highest energy prices in Europe. 
The senseless energy transition policy, favoring subsidized, unreliable and ineffective wind and solar power, is making Germany dependent on expensive Russian gas, and now also overpriced Norwegian hydro power:

Germany and Norway have signed a contract for a high-voltage undersea cable aimed at exchanging surplus renewable energy. The project is essential for Germany's plan to phase out nuclear power by 2022.

Construction of the North Sea underwater cable would cost between 1.5 billion and 2 billion euros ($2-2.6 billion), and is expected to be finished by 2018, Germany's state-owned KfW development bank announced Tuesday.

"This project is a major step toward the integration of German wind power in the country's energy grid, and a cornerstone of Germany's shift toward renewable energy generation," TenneT Chief Executive Martin Fuchs said.

The North Sea cable is scheduled to boast a capacity of 1,400 megawatts - the equivalent of a larger plant. It is intended to transport Norwegian hydropower to Germany in times of low wind and solar supply. Furthermore, the country's excess power from renewable sources is meant to be transported to Norway to be stored there in dams for later use back in Germany.

Denmark is already doing what Germany intends to do:

Windy Denmark is able to shift nighttime energy resources for daytime use, while Norway -- which gets almost all its electricity from conventional hydropower -- has reservoirs behind its dams that can easily store that excess power. The arrangement helps Norway mitigate some of the risk from drought and other challenges to its hydro-heavy grid, Miller said.

For Norwegians, the system is a great money-maker as well. They pay their neighbor almost nothing for the nighttime wind energy they take on since demand is so low at that time, but charge Denmark a premium for it at peak pricing hours.

"Norway is making a killing," Miller said. "Danish people pay the highest power prices in Europe."

Energy prices have already risen steeply in Germany creating huge problems for consumers and companies. But that is only the beginning. Wait until the Norwegian energy barons begin to "make a killing"!

Confirmed: Antarctic ice shelves NOT melting

Remember all those reports about the fast melting Antarctic ice shelves? A new study - based on real measurements, not computer models - by researchers from the Norwegian Polar Institute published in the journal Geophysical Letters shows that they we wrong: 

“It has been unclear, until now, how much warm deep water rises below the Fimbul Ice shelf, and previous ocean models, focusing on the circulation below the Fimbul Ice Shelf, have predicted temperatures and melt rates that are too high, suggesting a significant mass loss in this region that is actually not taking place as fast as previously thought,” said lead author of the study and PhD student at the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), Tore Hattermann.

The Fimbul Ice Shelf – located along eastern Antarctica in the Weddell Sea – is the sixth largest of the forty-three ice shelves that dapple Antarctica’s perimeter. Both its size and proximity to the Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet – the largest ice sheet on Earth, which if it melted, could lead to extreme changes in sea level – have made the Fimbul Ice Shelf an attractive object of study.

The team is the first to provide direct, observational evidence that the Fimbul Ice Shelf is melting from underneath by three, equally important processes. Their results confirm a 20-year-old theory about how ice shelves melt that, until now, was too complex to be further investigated with models that had no direct observations for comparison. These processes likely apply to other areas of Antarctica, primarily the eastern half because of its similar water and wind circulation patterns, Hattermann said.

--

It turns out that past studies, which were based on computer models without any direct data for comparison or guidance, overestimate the water temperatures and extent of melting beneath the Fimbul Ice Shelf. This has led to the misconception, Hattermann said, that the ice shelf is losing mass at a faster rate than it is gaining mass, leading to an overall loss of mass. The model results were in contrast to the available data from satellite observations, which are supported by the new measurements.

The team’s results show that water temperatures are far lower than computer models predicted, which means that the Fimbul Ice Shelf is melting at a slower rate. Perhaps indicating that the shelf is neither losing nor gaining mass at the moment because ice buildup from snowfall has kept up with the rate of mass loss, Hattermann said.

“Our data shows what needs to be included in the next generation models, in order to be able to do a good job in predicting future melt rates,” Hattermann said.

Read the entire article here

Putin´s and Schröder´s Nord Stream will not get any gas from the Shtokman field

Vladimir Putin´s and former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder´s pet project, the Nord Stream gas pipeline, will be the big loser after Russian energy giant Gazprom´s apparent decision to make the arctic Shtokman development 100% LNG based: 

"Our decision to switch to 100 percent LNG is a reflection of the supply-demand balance in Europe," Alexander Medvedev, deputy chairman of the company's management committee, told reporters at a global gas conference in Kuala Lumpur.

The Shtokman development, which is a partnership between the Russian gas giant, Norway's Statoil and France's Total , has repeatedly been delayed because of rising costs, decreasing demand and, above all, the impact of the US shale gas boom. 

 French Total owns 25%, Norway´s Statoil 24% and Russia´s Gazprom has the decisive majority stake 51% of Shtokman, one of the world's largest gas fields with reserves of 3.7 trillion cubic meters located offshore in the Barents Sea.

According to earlier plans Gazprom intended to sell gas from the Shtokman field via the Nord Stream pipeline, which would have required the construction of a new pipeline connecting the Kola peninsula with the the Nord Stream pipeline. The fact that this connecting pipeline will not be built could seriously impact the long term profitability of Nord Stream. 

Whether Statoil and Total will remain as partners in the "new" Shtokman LNG project is not clear. Last month Gazprom´s chief executive said that the company is seeking new partners for the revamped Shtokman project. A couple of days ago a Statoil representative told reporters in Baku that the Norwegian energy company "has no plans to leave Shtokman". 

PS

What we see here, is the impact of the gamechanging US led shale gas revolution. And this is just the beginning ....

Hillary Clinton hosted by the Arabs of the Arctic

One must admire Norway´s socialist Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his government. They manage to make all the politically correct "progressive" noises about global warming and sustainability while at the same working tirelessly to cash in on the sale of fossil fuels 
from Norway´s territorial waters. 


Thanks to its extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas and hydropower, Norway now has the fourth highest per capita income in the world. And the billions just keep rolling into the Norwegian coffers. 


The next "big thing" for these Arctic Arabs will be the extensive utilisation of the fossil riches that lie buried under the cold waters of the northernmost areas. But, because there are others who also are competing for access to these abundant energy resources, Mr. Stoltenberg and his  fellow socialists have adopted a clever PR strategy, part of which is to invite foreign leaders and celebrities to the Arctic areas in order to give them a chance to "witness" global warming  - and get the right kind of photo opportunities for the media. ("Progressive" liberal and leftist media always publish these photos showing how concerned the visitors - and the hosts -  are about the urgent need to "fight global warming"). 


The latest climate change tourist in Tromso was US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who before the trip had this to say about her discussions with her Norwegian colleague: 


This morning we spent time on issues in the Arctic, which we certainly will follow up when we get to the Arctic. We touched upon climate change mitigation through supporting initiatives that actually bring difference. The world failed to get to one all-encompassing global deal on climate change a couple of years ago, but we are making progress on some individual projects such as fighting short-lived pollutants that have a dramatic effect in particular in the Arctic. We discussed that with the minister of the environment present, preparation for Rio+20, and other similar issues.


However, in addition to those usual phrases on climate change, the Secretary also was quite clear about where her real interests were - she was there primarily to claim a stake for the US in the scramble for the Arctic riches:  

 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton boarded a research ship on Saturday to tour the Arctic, where big powers are vying for vast deposits of oil, gas and minerals that are becoming available as the polar ice recedes. 

The top U.S. diplomat took the unusual step of visiting Tromso, a Norwegian town in the Arctic Circle, to dramatize U.S. interests in a once inaccessible region whose resources are up for grabs as the sea ice melts with climate change.  

"From a strategic standpoint, the Arctic has an increasing geopolitical importance as countries vie to protect their rights and extend their influence," Clinton told reporters in Oslo before making the nearly two-hour flight north to Tromso. 

The Norwegians know that they need an ally against Russia, their main competitor in the Arctic waters, which is why they are prepared to give a piece of the cake to US companies. This was the real agenda during Hillary Clinton´s visit to Norway. All the talk about climate change and global warming was just window dressing. 

Norwegian socialist PM Stoltenberg: Carbon capture project as important as Moon landing

Carbon capture has failed just about everywhere, but Norway - awash with money accrued from the sale of oil and gas from its vast offshore fields - is still trying to promote its image by investing in this less than succesful technology. 

The country´s socialist Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg - who has compared the carbon capture project in importance to a Moon landing - was upbeat when he opened the new billion dollar Mongstad carbon capture research centre: 

NORWAY inaugurated what it called the world's largest laboratory for capturing carbon dioxide, a leading strategy for fighting global warming.

Located at an oil refinery on Norway's west coast, the Technology Centre Mongstad aims to test French and Norwegian methods of capturing carbon dioxide emissions and burying them underground to prevent them from escaping into the atmosphere.

"We need to find a way to reconcile the need for energy and the need for emission reductions," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said as he inaugurated the site.

"Carbon-capture technology is a key," he said. "This technology may deliver up to 20 percent of the emission reductions needed by 2050."

Built at an estimated cost of 5.9 billion Norwegian krone ($998 million) mainly with state funds, the Mongstad centre is "the world's largest and most advanced laboratory for testing carbon-capture technologies", Prime Minister Stoltenberg said.

The centre is three-quarters owned by the state firm Gassnova, followed by a 20 percent stake held by Norway's Statoil, with the Anglo-Dutch Shell and South Africa's Sasol holding the remaining stakes.

It is testing technologies of the French company Alstom amd those of Norway's Aker Solutions.

Stoltenberg launched the ambitious project in 2007 with the aim of making Norway a world leader in capturing and storing carbon dioxide, a goal he likened in importance to a Moon landing.

But the project has been plagued with delays and cost overruns: the goal of large-scale capture and storage of the carbon dioxide emitted by Mongstad's refinery and natural gas processing plant was initially set to enter operation in 2014, but is now expected to become possible in 2020 at the earliest.

Read the entire article here, 

However, the reality of Norways "Moon landing project" is not at all as rosy as Stoltenberg wants us to believe. Even the country´s energy minister has to admit that the Mongstad centre would not survive without massive government subsidies: 

Knowledge alone won’t accelerate the commercial development of CCS, however. The full-scale carbon capture facility planned for Mongstad couldn’t survive without public funds. “It’s heavily subsidized by the Norwegian government,” says Borten Moe, the energy minister. Still, he believes the money is well spent. Long-term plans call for exporting technology to countries with similar emission profiles. Some, including Mads Greaker, a research director at Statistics Norway, have suggested the government will have a difficult time selling its know-how in what remains a shaky market.
Cost inflation is a particular risk. The price tag at Mongstad ballooned by more than 200 per cent before shovels even hit the ground, Greaker noted in a 2009 report. “Our results suggest that capture technologies that are intended as end-of-pipe technologies have a small market potential unless such solutions become cheap,” Greaker wrote.

Read the entire article here

Energy+ Partnership - Norway´s new international image campaign

Norway has according to a foreign ministry spokesman pledged to spend $300 million a year "to devise ways to help some of the world's poorest people get better access to energy and to develop a new market-based system to limit emissions from global energy production".

Other countries in the Energy+ Partnership, as the programme to be launched by Norway by June is called, are said to be UK, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Netherlands and South Korea. The countries on the receiving side will be Bhutan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Maldives, Morocco, Nepal, Senegal and Tanzania, and later perhaps also India and South Africa.

Reuters adds:
The cash will depend on how well the recipient countries can prove they are increasing public access to energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions compared to unchecked levels, according to a policy document seen by Point Carbon News.

Read the entire article here

Comment:

One should not be deceived by this PR stunt, designed to make oil rich Norway look like a serious benefactor of poor countries while at the same time pretending to work for "cutting greenhouse gas emisssions".

$300 million a year is a drop in the ocean when one looks at the enormous oil incomes that Norway reaps from its off-shore fossile fuel industry. If Norway´s socialist government really believed in IPCC´s global warming scenarios, it would immediately close down all the oil and gas production facilities that contribute to future catastrophic global warming. But they are of course not prepared to do anything that would seriously endanger their own source of riches. Instead they just want to shine as a "resonsible" model pupil in the worldwide UN school of global warming hypocracy.

Carbon capture: "The market is dead"

Another huge setback for the AGW lobby: Norway´s only carbon capture company, Aker Solutions, is set to close down:

DN reported Friday that leading local firm Aker ASA is writing off its investment in Aker Clean Carbon and may shut down the company, because of losses and no sign of improvement.
“The market is dead,” Aker chief executive Øyvind Eriksen told DN. “Therefore Aker Solutions is taking its investment as a loss.”
That’s a huge setback, not least to Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s own high-profile carbon emission reduction plans. Eriksen said industrial efforts depend on support from government authorities, but it hasn’t materialized. Aker had hopes for business from Norwegian authorities at Statoil’s Mongstad facility, but it’s been delayed, and from British authorities at the Longannet power plan, but they backed out because of high costs.
Aker Clean Carbon was initially set up in 2007 and Aker even recruited the powerful state secretary at the time, Liv Monica Stubholt, to run it. Now the future for Stubholt and her 30 colleagues appears uncertain.

Read the entire article here

PS

This is just another example of what happens with companies that completely rely on government subsidies. When politicians have other priorities, "the market is dead".

Some thoughts on the eve of the Polish EU Presidency

On July 1 Poland takes over the EU Presidency for a 6 month period. One has to wish them luck, although even a "succesful" EU Presidency will not be more than a touch up job in order to keep a rotten ship afloat for a while longer.

It is as such not suprising that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and a number of other Polish decision makers are now praising the European Union as the main reason for the excellent ecomic growth the country has enjoyed for several years now. If you are a member of a club, you are supposed to sing its praise once in a while, and particularly if its your turn to be at "the helm".

But the truth is, that Poland has had good economic growth despite of the European Union, not because of it.
It is likely that the Polish growth would have been even faster, if the country would have opted for a close co-operation in the form e.g. of a free trade area with the EU, instead of membership.

In the next 10-15 years Poland could, according to its Foreign Minister, become the "new Norway" in Europe (thanks to shale gas). And, if the European Union does not prevent it through prohibitive regulation (this a real danger that the Poles must stave off at all costs!), the chances that this will actually happen, are excellent. Norway, of course, has not felt any need to join the "club", although they enjoy a very good co-operation with the EU. Non-membership offers Norway - and e.g. Switzerland - much better opportunities to shape its future, without the costly, bureaucratic and undemocratic EU straightjacket. This would be a much better solution for Poland, too. As the unraveling of the present EU continues, despite futile attempts to keep the already almost dead euro patient alive, Poland may actually have a good opportunity for real independence in the not too distant future.

Who are not attending the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony?

The list of countries which do not send a representative to this week´s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo makes interesting reading:

China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iraq , Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Sudan, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco.

Many of the countries on the list are not known for promoting free speech and treating dissidents decently.

But, what is even more interesting to note, is that the UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay has chosen not to attend - or even send a representative. A representative for this year´s prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, had this to say:

In a statement released to the press, Yang Jianli, a Chinese dissident who represents Liu before the Nobel committee, accused the U.N. officials of neglecting their duties. "Ms. Pillay's decision is a clear and unequivocal abdication of her responsibilities as high commissioner, which I believe resulted from direct pressure from the Chinese government," Yang said. "It is especially concerning because it occurs in the wake of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's refusal to raise Dr. Liu's case when he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao shortly Dr. Liu was announced as the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate."

http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/12/06/un_human_rights_chief_declines_invite_to_nobel_peace_prize_ceremony

Not very brave, dear UN representatives!