A decision with particular importance for the future of oil extraction and the international fight against climate change was issued yesterday Friday by the Supreme Court of Norway, ruling that government approvals for three large oil fields in the North Sea are invalid.
At the heart of the court decision was the following: Governments must calculate not only the emissions caused by oil extraction, but also those that arise when oil is burned by end consumers.
Norway's highest court has ruled in favour of environmental organisations Greenpeace Norway and Young Friends of the Earth Norway, which had gone to court in 2023, challenging the approvals for the Tyrving, Breidablikk and Yggdrasil fields.
The organizations argued that the government's environmental assessments were incomplete, as they did not take into account the carbon dioxide emissions that will result from the future burning of extracted hydrocarbons.
The importance of the case was also reflected in the composition of the court. Instead of the usual five-judge composition, the case was examined by 11 judges, in a procedure chosen for issues of particular legal importance.
The Supreme Court ruled that the approvals of the extraction and expansion plans were "invalid due to procedural errors", as the environmental studies were limited to emissions directly linked to oil production, leaving so-called "combustion emissions" out of the assessment.
According to the court, emissions resulting from the combustion of the oil produced must be the subject of an environmental impact assessment before a plan can be approved.
This is a crucial legal distinction, with potentially broader consequences, as it links the licensing of fossil fuel production to the climate impacts of their end-use.
The decision was enthusiastically received by environmental organizations. "This is a historic victory for the climate and for Norwegian democracy," Haldis Jeldflaat Hele, head of Greenpeace's Norwegian branch, told AFP. "The big polluters are now forced to admit exactly how much they will contribute to the climate crisis we are experiencing," he added.
Despite its gravity, the decision does not automatically entail the cessation of oil activities. The Supreme Court clarified that the oil companies were not parties to the case and that the cancellation of government approvals does not necessarily mean that the relevant licenses immediately cease to be valid.
However, the Norwegian Ministry of Energy is obliged to re-examine the case, following the prescribed environmental assessment procedure.
The development is of particular economic and energy importance, as two of the deposits in question, Breidablikk and Tyrving, are already in production.
The third, Yggdrasil, whose estimated reserves were recently revised upwards, is scheduled to start oil production in 2027.
