Norway, Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, had plans to become one of the first countries in the world to grant rights to thousands of kilometers of its waters for underwater mining. This plan had been strongly criticized by environmental organizations around the world, and both the European Union parliament like a list of 32 countries (including Spain) had asked the Nordic country to put a moratorium on it due to the doubts raised by underwater mining due to its environmental impact.
For now, the Oslo government, made up of social democrats and centrists, has had to give way after reaching an agreement with the Socialist Left Party (SV) to approve the national budgets for the following year. Among the conditions that the small leftist party has managed to impose (with 13 of the 169 seats in Parliament) was the suspension for one year of the granting of licenses for underwater mining, scheduled to begin in 2025.
From environmental organizations, the agreement has been celebrated as “a great victory.” “After hard work by activists, scientists and fishermen, we have achieved a historic victory for the protection of the oceans,” he said. the leader of Greenpeace in the countryHaldis Tjeldflaat Helle. From the NGO World Wildlife Fund (WWF), its general secretary in Norway, Karoline Andaur, expressed that “fortunately, the Left Socialist Party has become aware of the seriousness of the situation and has assumed the responsibility of putting an end to this madness. of deep sea mining.
On the other hand, the country’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre called the decision a “postponement” and said that the legislative and administrative work preparatory to starting deep-sea mining would not stop.
Huge amounts of minerals at the bottom of the sea
The Parliament of the Scandinavian country voted last January in favor of being one of the first sites in the world to allow the exploration and exploitation of the seabed to extract minerals (The other two countries that also allow it, although they have not yet started mining activity, are China and the Cook Islands). The maritime area that the government wanted to allow companies to exploit is located between the Barentz Sea and Greenland, and is 281,000 square kilometers (an area larger than the United Kingdom).
On the seabed of this area of the Arctic, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (an agency that depends on the Ministry of Energy) estimates that 38 million tons of copper, 45 million tons of zinc, and 2,317 tons of gold are found, in addition to significant quantities of “rare earth” minerals. These minerals are essential for the construction of batteries for electric cars and other technologies necessary to develop green industries. The costs of extracting minerals from the seabed are significantly higher than those of traditional mining on land. But Norway’s government argues that exploitation of its seabed has the potential to provide enormous economic benefits. According to a report from the Oslo-based institute Rystad Energythese benefits would be 180,000 million crowns per year (15,400 million euros annually), in addition to the creation of 21,000 new jobs.
Another of the government’s arguments to defend underwater mining is that Norway wants and can free itself from dependence on China to access these minerals (currently 98% of rare earth minerals used in European industry are exported from the Asian giant. ). Energy Minister Terje Aastlandhas also defended that “concessions for mineral extraction will only be approved if it is demonstrated that they can be done in a sustainable and responsible manner by companies.”
But scientists are not so clear that the conditions of sustainability and responsibility with the environment can be guaranteed. Researchers are concerned that the government could begin giving concessions to mining companies without there having been enough time to accurately evaluate the impact of mining in this area of the sea. From the Norwegian Marine Research Instituteits director Frode Vikebø already assured that “we currently lack knowledge about this area of the ocean and the impact that mining could have.”
For its part, the marine expert group Ocean Panel, led by Norway, has also warned that underwater mining goes against the sustainability goals established by the United Nations. According to experts, underwater mining that occurs at a depth of about 3,500 meters, has the potential to greatly damage ecosystems when carried out with a type of enormous vacuum cleaner that sucks up the seabed, creating clouds of sediment that kill microorganisms up to hundreds of kilometers away.
The Norwegian government, on trial
In parallel to the decision to temporarily stop underwater mining due to the negotiation of the general budgets, since November 28 Norway also faces a lawsuit from the WWF organizationin an unprecedented trial. The environmental NGO wants the concessions to exploit Norway’s seabed to be declared illegal in the courts, since, they defend, the government would not have adequately investigated their impact in the reports that were used to process the licensing law. in Parliament.
At the start of the trial, WWF Secretary General Karoline Andaur stated that “if we do not denounce this decision now, it will set a new and dangerous precedent for how Norway manages its natural resources.” The government maintains its position in the judgment that it is legal to make decisions such as opening the national maritime zone to mining to explore a new industry, even if there is uncertainty and a lack of scientific knowledge.
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