Arctic oil drilling, the European Court of Human Rights will decide
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
It will be European justice that rules on the licences granted by Norway for the exploitation of oil fields in the Arctic.
Arctic oil drilling, the European Court of Human Rights will decide
It will be European justice that rules on the licences granted by Norway for the exploitation of oil fields in the Arctic.
Two non-governmental organisations and six activists have decided to take Norway back to court. Their aim: to ask the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to annul a number of new permits granted for the exploitation of oil fields in the Arctic Ocean.
Oil licences in the Barents Sea in NGOs' sights
The legal action was announced by Greenpeace Nordic, which has been opposing the project since 2017, together with Friends of the Earth. The ten licences are concentrated in the Barents Sea and have already been the subject of a ruling by Norway's Supreme Court. The latter rejected, last December, the appeals lodged by the NGOs, siding with the government of Western Europe's largest hydrocarbon-exporting country.
The environmentalists now hope that the ECHR may overturn the ruling, in light of the need to protect human rights. The lawyers pleading the NGOs' case will emphasise the need to comply with the Paris Agreement, and in particular the objective of limiting the rise in average global temperature to a maximum of two degrees Celsius by the end of the century, compared to pre-industrial levels. This will not be possible if the world continues to extract and burn fossil fuels.
Environmentalists' defeats in the first rounds of litigation
Furthermore, the NGOs believe that the granting of the oil licences violates Article 112 of the Norwegian Constitution, which guarantees the right to live in a healthy environment. The Supreme Court had, however, argued that the article in question could only be invoked if the state had shown it was unwilling to take on its own responsibilities in environmental and climate matters. On the contrary, according to the Oslo judges, the Scandinavian government had in fact acted correctly.
Norway's highest court also found that the licences did not violate the European Convention on Human Rights either, since they do not impose "a real and immediate risk" either to people's lives or to their physical integrity. A view not shared by the NGOs, who argue that it "fails to account for a precise assessment of the consequences of climate change on future generations".
Norway continues to bet on oil
Norway, in any case, does not appear to be ready to give up oil. The Oslo government recently published a "White Paper on the country's energy future", in which hydrocarbons still feature prominently.