The budgetary negotiations led part of the left to obtain the suspension of a project planning to grant the first permits for underwater mining in Norwegian funds.
Norway will not issue, as it planned despite criticism from all sides, permits for underwater mining prospecting in its Arctic waters in 2025.
The small Socialist Left party announced on Sunday that it had won this concession as part of negotiations with the center-left government, a minority in Parliament, to help it adopt its 2025 draft budget.
“We have stopped projects to extract minerals from the seabed”declared Kirsti Bergstø, leader of the Socialist Left, during a press conference. In a press release, the party specifies that this suspension applies for 2024 and 2025.
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Labor Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre stressed that this decision did not signal the end of national mineral extraction projects deemed essential to do without hydrocarbons – of which the country is also a major producer – as part of the energy transition. . “It’s a postponement, we must be able to accept that”he told the TV2 channel.
Despite objections from scientists, NGOs and other states, Norway planned to award its first underwater mining exploration permits next year, which could have made it one of the first countries in the world to mine the underwater depths.
In January, its parliament gave the green light to the opening of part of the seabed to mining prospecting, covering 280,000 km², more than the total area of the United Kingdom.
The Ministry of Energy then designated suitable areas, representing 38% of this surface area, in the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea, for a first cycle of licensing planned for 2025.
Ongoing trial
This gradual opening of the seabed to mining exploration, reversible and accompanied by safeguards according to the government, had aroused opposition from NGOs, international institutions such as the European Parliament, scientists and even multinationals. .
Thursday opened in Oslo the lawsuit brought against the State by the Norwegian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) which demanded a suspension of this opening process pending impact studies.
“WWF is very happy that there will be no cycle of concessions (…) in 2024-2025”reacted the president of WWF Norway, Karoline Andaur, in a message to AFP.
On the other hand, she ruled out stopping the legal proceedings. “We still need the courts to decide (the question of) whether the decision to open (the seabed) was taken on legal grounds”underlined Karoline Andaur.
Contacted by AFP, the Ministry of Energy refused any comment, referring to the parties behind the budget compromise.
According to many NGOs, the opening of the seabed to mining activities poses an additional threat to a little-known ecosystem already weakened by global warming.
Among the possible dangers, the direct destruction of habitats and organisms on the seabed, noise and light pollution, the risk of chemical leaks from machines as well as the accidental movement of species.
“This is a crucial victory in the fight against underwater mining”commented the leader of Greenpeace Norway, Frode Pleym, on Sunday. “This should be the final blow for this destructive industry”he told AFP.
The Norwegian authorities, for their part, emphasize the importance of not depending on countries like China for the supply of minerals essential to the energy transition and assure that prospecting would make it possible to gather the knowledge that is currently lacking.
According to Oslo, the country's continental shelf most likely contains large deposits of minerals, such as copper, cobalt, zinc and rare earths. Minerals which are used in the composition of electric batteries, wind turbines, computers and mobile phones.
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