The Norwegian oil industry has revived an idea for lifting the country’s 20-year-old tax on carbon emitted offshore in favour of building a 10-billion-kroner “climate fund” to prop up clean technology development, it was learned Friday.

The Norwegian Oil Industry Association, or OLF, and consultancy Cicero have said the fund would reach NOK10 billion in five years of carbon-tax-free operations.

The idea has worked in Sweden, judging by a report in newspaper Aftenposten, and a fund looks set to supplant a new and unpopular nitrogen-dioxide tax in at least the Norwegian fishing industry.

The Norwegian oil industry’s 430-kroner-per-tonne carbon tax is cited for having started carbon-injection and storage at the Sleipner field in the North Sea.

The oil and gas industry in Norway accounts for a quarter of Norwegian industrial emissions.

In 2008, the Norwegian oil industry joins the worldwide trade in carbon-dioxide emission-reduction quotas, although the national accounting won’t be ready at the start of the year for Europe’s trade.