The state’s approval of three oil and gas fields off the coast of Norway was invalid, the Supreme Court in Oslo has ruled. The climate consequences must be investigated before new fields are given the green light, according to the ruling.
“The state has made a mistake,” Natur og Ungdom leader Sigrid Hoddevik Losnegård told NRK.
“We must take into account the consequences that the Norwegian oil industry and each individual project have for the global climate, which the government and the state have not previously done.”
“Withholding information”
In their lawsuit in 2023, Greenpeace and Natur og Ungdom argued that the climate consequences of the Tyrving, Breidablikk and Yggdrasil fields had not been assessed.
The Supreme Court agreed with the organizations and ruled that emissions from burning extracted petroleum must be assessed under EU directives before oil and gas fields are approved.
“The time when oil companies can withhold information about the climate damage they are causing us - and humanity - is over,” Greenpeace Norway leader Haldis Tjeldflaat Helle told the Norwegian news agency NTB.
Demands production halt
The state will pay the environmental organizations five million Norwegian kroner in legal costs, according to Norwegian media.
The organizations have previously won in both the district court and the court of appeal. Friday’s ruling does not mean that the projects in the North Sea will stop, but that the state must take significantly more measures before new licenses are issued.
The Green Party is now demanding an immediate halt to production at the Tyrving and Breidablikk fields, where oil is already being pumped, NTB reports. The third field, Yggdrasil, is in the drilling phase and has been described as the largest ongoing project on the Norwegian continental shelf.
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