Climate activists cry foul over Norway's $18B investment in new oil projects  

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CN)  — There were very different reactions in June when Norway’s government approved 19 new oil and gas projects, representing an investment of over $18 billion. The money will go to further expansion and development of existing oil fields, such as the major offshore oil project Yggdrasil in the North Sea.

In celebrating the decision, Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland called the projects vital for European energy security and underlined how they will secure the oil and gas production beyond 2025.

“We are further developing our oil activities to create jobs and generate significant income for society,” Aasland said. The minister also referred to the potential of new technologies such as carbon sequestration and storage, hydrogen and offshore wind power.

Norway is known as one of the world’s leading oil producers and exporters, and it is the second-largest producer in Europe, surpassed only by Russia. The Nordic country’s strong economy and welfare state largely runs on oil, and revenues have increased again after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yet the new oil expansion rang alarm bells for climate organizers. One of them is Tuva Mjelde Refsum, a 22-year-old activist and deputy chairwoman of the nonprofit organization Young Friends of the Earth Norway.

“The government’s announcement came on June 5, ironically World Environment Day," Refsum said. “It is a strong symbol that Norway is heading in the wrong direction. I find it frightening because of the obvious climate consequences, and the fact that our society leans heavily on an industry that the world must get rid of.”

Refsum criticized the oil politics in Norway, as she believes the government goes to unethical lengths to support the industry.

“In Norway, we talk nicely about the green industry, offshore wind adventures and being ‘climate leaders.’ However, the reality is that we are so far from reaching our climate goals, and now we strengthen fossil fuel projects that have a timeline reaching well over 2050,” she said.

Refsum is concerned that the decision will contribute to overrunning the world’s collective carbon budget.

In advance of the Cop28 climate summit later this year, the EU’s climate chief proposed a global pledge to eliminate unabated fossil fuels and stop emissions from the oil and gas sector before 2050. That means only allowing projects that can prove to effectively abate, or remove, emissions by using techniques like carbon capture and storage — an expensive technology still under development in northern countries.

Young Friends of the Earth Norway’s 6,000 members have little faith that the government will take responsibility in reaching the EU’s reduction targets. They are now preparing climate litigation, in collaboration with Greenpeace, that contests the validity of three oil projects, including the new Yggdrasil development.

“We are strategically targeting three different new fields and hope a win will affect all new fossil investments in the future. It is high time for Norway to live up to our commitments," Refsum said.

The climate activists will ask a Norway district court to find all three projects illegal on the grounds that the government is ignoring climate science and has not explicitly considered how the new projects will affect the climate, including the carbon dioxide emissions from Norwegian-exported oil burned abroad.

The group is building their hopes on part of a ruling from a 2016 suit, in which the group sued the state for allowing new oil fields in the Arctic Sea. The lawsuit was based on an article in the constitution that says “everyone has the right to a habitable environment for current and future generations, which includes a habitable climate.”

While the case was unsuccessful, the Supreme Court agreed in 2020 that the government must always assess global climate consequences before approving new oil projects. According to the young activists, that was not the case when the recent licenses were approved.

At the organization Offshore Norway, chief economist Marius Menth Andersen called the 19 new oil and gas projects important for the European energy market and underlined that, despite decreasing demand, the world will need oil and gas for decades to come.

“The projects provide the basis for many jobs in the supplier industry along our entire coast,” Andersen said.

He said that alternative energy is not incompatible with oil production.

“Our companies actively work to build new value chains linked to offshore wind, carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen," Andersen stated. “Oil and renewable energy projects will co-exist and draw on each other’s expertise.”

Recently, Aasland, the oil minister, announced a goal to open the seafloor to commercial mining to extract resources such as minerals and metals.