The Arctic waters and unique ecosystems of Norway's Lofoten Islands are safe from oil. Thanks to a vote by the Labour Party opposing exploration in the area, extraction could now be permanently banned.
One of the world's largest producers of fossil fuels is falling out of love with oil. That country is Norway, which has taken a further step towards protecting its Arctic waters, which lap the shores and fjords of the Lofoten, Vesterålen and Senja islands — one of the areas of the country left untouched by extractive activities and home to unique ecosystems.
The Norwegian Labour Party announced on 7 April that it will withdraw its support for oil drilling off the coasts of the Lofoten, Vesterålen and Senja islands — an area known as LoVeSe, in the Norwegian Arctic. Although Labour is in opposition rather than in government (which is led by a coalition of parties, including some smaller ones already opposed to oil), it is the largest party in Parliament. This means that with its vote, the decision not to open the area to oil activities and to pursue a permanent ban now commands a majority within the Norwegian Parliament.
The Lofoten Islands, with their fjords creating landscapes of incredible beauty — characterised by blue waters overlooked by majestic mountains that shelter small, colourful villages — are today considered a unique ecosystem in the world. Their waters are home to and attract one of the highest concentrations of cetaceans on the planet, while their peaks are one of Europe's largest nesting areas for seabirds. Beyond the extraordinary nature and biodiversity that are rarely found elsewhere on our planet, the waters of the Lofoten Islands also appear to be rich in oil deposits: it is estimated that between 1 and 3 billion barrels of crude oil may lie hidden offshore of the archipelago.
It is precisely for this reason that the decision by the Labour Party — which in the past has always backed the oil and gas industry — represents a decisive change of course for the country's future. "The entire sector is surprised and disappointed. This decision does not give us the predictability we depend on," commented Karl Eirik Schjott-Pedersen, head of the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association. Indeed, according to energy company Equinor — which recently put forward a drilling plan in the pristine waters of the Great Australian Bight — the Lofoten area is a key zone for the Norwegian oil industry to keep its oil production stable, enabling the country to remain one of the world's largest exporters of black gold. This decision, moreover, comes shortly after the announcement by the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, that it will no longer invest in oil and gas, but in renewable sources instead.
The Labour Party supports the development of other sectors in these marine areas, such as fishing, tourism and renewable energy. Jonas Gahr Støre, Labour Party leader
The Lofoten Islands have been protected from oil activities since 2001 thanks to a series of temporary bans that have followed one another under successive governments, achieved with the support of local communities and local governments and of small fishing businesses. Each time a ban expired, the threat was always just around the corner.
It was with the 2019 expiry in mind that the #OilFreeLofoten campaign was launched, promoted by the organisation Sea Legacy (founded by photographers Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier) in collaboration with Friends of the Earth Norway, the anti-oil association Folkeaksjonen and the Labour Party youth wing, calling on parliament to give the area permanent protection from oil.
When people watch an orca and discover that its existence is threatened by greed for oil, their eyes are opened. Paul Nicklen, environmental photographer
More than 50,000 people responded to the call and signed the petition to keep fossil fuels out of the archipelago — a testament to how much this industry is losing the popularity it once enjoyed in the famous era of Norwegian oil, and to how the country — one of the few in the world that could achieve the goal of being 100 per cent renewable and zeroing its emissions — can no longer look the other way and must break free from its now bygone fossil past in order to chart the lines of a cleaner future.