Environment Norway abandons controversial deep-sea mining for the time being
Norway is abandoning controversial deep-sea mining off its coasts for the time being. No exploration licenses for deep-sea mining will be issued this year or next, the Socialist Left Party announced on Sunday.
01.12.2024, 22:09
SDA
This is therefore a concession by the minority government of the Social Democrats and the Center Party in order to get the budget for 2025 through parliament with the support of the Socialist Left Party.
In 2023, the Norwegian Offshore Authority published a report stating that there are "considerable quantities of mineral resources" on the seabed off Norway - including copper, zinc and cobalt. These mineral resources are needed for the production of batteries, wind turbines, computers and cell phones, among other things.
In December 2023, the coalition government agreed to open up an area of 280,000 square kilometers off the country's coast for deep sea mining. In January 2024, the Norwegian parliament gave the green light. The Ministry of Energy then designated suitable areas in the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea in order to issue the first licenses for seabed exploration in 2025.
Environmentalists are extremely critical of deep-sea mining, as experts believe that large-scale extraction of raw materials in the previously almost untouched depths of the oceans could have a significant impact on sensitive habitats and biodiversity. A trial on deep-sea mining began in Oslo on Thursday. The environmental protection organization WWF had sued the Norwegian state.
