WWF takes Norway to court over seabed mining

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WWF takes Norway to court over seabed mining

Updated 09.23 | Published 09.22

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  • The World Wide Fund for Nature has sued the Norwegian government for allowing seabed mining, which they believe is against the law.
  • The government has been criticized because the decision on mining is rushed and too large without sufficient environmental consideration.
  • A court in Oslo will now examine whether the government’s impact assessment meets the minimum requirements for such a decision.

    • ⓘ The summary is made with the support of AI tools from OpenAI and quality assured by Aftonbladet. Read our AI policy here.

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    The World Wide Fund for Nature believes that Norway is breaking the law when it opens up mining on the seabed.

    Now they have sued the government.

    – We do not agree with their view, and we will present our arguments to the court, writes Astrid Bergmål (Ap) at the Ministry of the Environment in an email to The stock exchange.

    The Norwegian Parliament agreed in January to open up an area of ​​281,000 square kilometers to be able to extract seabed minerals.

    If the plan goes through, extraction could start as early as spring 2025 and make Norway one of the first countries to allow mining on the seabed – unless WWF gets the decision annulled.

    The Oslo District Court will now examine whether the impact assessment that forms the basis of the decision meets the minimum requirements.

    WWF’s general secretary in Norway, Karoline Andaur, describes the government’s impact analysis as “scandalous”.

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    full screen WWF Secretary General Karoline Andaur in Norway. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB

    – It is an incomplete rush job. It is not clear anywhere why they have to be in such a hurry and why they exceed their own professional authorities, she tells Børsen.

    Criticism from several quarters

    The government has also received criticism from the state’s own professionals, who believe that the area the government wants to clear is too large, that it violates the Storting’s intentions, and that the decision is both hasty and does not take the environment into account.

    But the government does not agree with the criticism.

    – We are planning a step-by-step, knowledge-based way of working where consideration for the environment weighs heavily, said Energy Minister Terje Aasland (Ap) in January.

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    full screen Photo: Silje Katrine Robinson / NTB

    WWF’s general secretary refutes this.

    – The government misleads and does not speak honestly when it says that the environment should weigh heavily. We have not mapped nature and the environment, says Karoline Andaur.

    At the same time, State Secretary Astrid Bergmål (Ap) writes at the Ministry of Energy that a “thorough process has been carried out”.

    – It has included two rounds of public hearings and a broad debate in the Storting. WWF wants to try the case in court and therefore we will now meet in the Oslo District Court, writes Bergmål in an email to Børsen.

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