Norway: oil production in the Arctic before the Supreme Court - environmentalists lose

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“Goliat” platform in the Barents Sea

: In 2016, operators Eni and Equinor, formerly Statoil, opened up the world's northernmost oil field with it

Photo: 

Jan-Morten Bjørnbakk / picture alliance / NTB scanpix

Almost at the same time as the Norwegian ratification of the World Climate Agreement in Paris, Norway began new oil wells in the Arctic Barents Sea for the first time in 20 years.

Environmentalists from Greenpeace and other organizations have now struggled against these permits for years before the country's Supreme Court.

The court in Oslo dismissed the plaintiffs' appeal with a majority of eleven to four votes, as the chief judges of Norway announced in an online verdict.

Norway is unwaveringly sticking to the sometimes economically questionable oil and gas production in the Arctic.

Even after the management plan for the entire region that was passed this summer, funding should continue to be possible very far north.

• Read about it: Norway is shifting the ice edge.

In the case of the 2016 permits, the environmentalists invoked the so-called environmental paragraph 112 of the Norwegian constitution, according to which the population has a right to a healthy environment.

So it was about the question of whether the Scandinavian state with its most important branch of the economy violates the Norwegian constitution.

Environmentalists had hoped for precedent for climate action

Judge Borgar Høgetveit Berg now said: The paragraph could not be interpreted as desired by environmentalists.

The judges were also unable to detect violations of the European Convention on Human Rights or procedural errors in the approval process by the state.

Four judges objected to the point of procedural error.

Greenpeace, the environmental protection organization Natur & Jugend and two support groups had not only hoped that oil drilling in the Arctic would ultimately be banned, but also wanted to set a precedent for climate action around the world.

So they have now failed.

Natur & Jugend criticized the decision: "That means that today's youth lacks basic legal protection against environmental damage that endangers our future." One is shocked and angry about this.

With their decision, the judges supported the judgment of two lower courts.

Both the District Court in Oslo and the Borgarting Court of Appeal had agreed with the state.

The Norwegian government had pointed out that the permits from 2016 had thoroughly gone through the political authorities, above all the Storting parliament.

Icon: The mirror

apr / dpa / Reuters