Victory over the Norwegian government: ‘Changed oil policy’
Three years ago, Greenpeace and Natur og ungdom took the Norwegian government to court over oil fields in the North Sea. The environmental organisations have now been vindicated by the highest court.
‘We have changed Norwegian oil policy for good,’ says the leader of Natur og Ungdom.
The Supreme Court in Oslo has ruled that the government’s approval of three oil and gas fields off the Norwegian coast was invalid. According to the ruling, the implications for the climate must be assessed before new fields are given the green light.
‘The state has been in the wrong,’ Sigrid Hoddevik Losnegård, leader of Natur og Ungdom, tells NRK.
‘We must take into account the impact that the Norwegian oil industry and every individual project have on the global climate – something the government and the state have failed to do previously.’
“Withholding information”
In their 2023 lawsuit, Greenpeace and Natur og Ungdom argued that the climate impacts of the Tyrving, Breidablikk and Yggdrasil fields had not been assessed.
The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the organisations – and stated that, under EU directives, combustion emissions from petroleum extraction must be assessed before oil and gas fields are approved.
‘The days when oil companies can withhold information about the climate damage they are causing us – and humanity – are over,’ Greenpeace’s Norway director, Haldis Tjeldflaat Helle, told the Norwegian news agency NTB.
Calls for a halt to production
The state is to pay the environmental organisations five million Norwegian kroner in legal costs, according to Norwegian media.
The organisations have previously won cases in both the district court and the court of appeal. Friday’s ruling does not mean that the North Sea projects will cease, but that the state must take significantly more measures before new licences are issued.
The Green Party (Miljøpartiet De Grønne) is now demanding an immediate halt to production at the Tyrving and Breidablikk fields, where oil is already being pumped, reports NTB. The third field, Yggdrasil, is in the drilling phase and has been described as the largest ongoing project on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Before the Norwegian government approves new oil and gas fields, the implications for the climate must be assessed.
This involves determining how much greenhouse gas is released into the atmosphere when the oil or gas is burnt, even outside Norway.
It is also necessary to assess the extent to which this combustion contributes to global warming, both for the individual field and for the entire Norwegian continental shelf.
In addition, an assessment must be carried out to determine whether the emissions breach Norway’s national and international obligations. However, there is no requirement for the emissions to be in line with the 1.5-degree target.
Source: NRK
