Norway Supreme Court declares three North Sea oilfield approvals invalid over unassessed combustion emissions
Norway's Supreme Court, sitting in grand chamber, ruled on November 13 that the government's approvals of the plans for development and operation for the Breidablikk and Tyrving fields and the Yggdrasil area were invalid, because the impact assessments behind them never covered the emissions from burning the oil and gas the fields will produce. The judgment is numbered HR-2026-2428-S.
The court held unanimously that combustion emissions from extracted oil and gas must be assessed before a development plan can be approved. By six votes to five, it further required a project's combustion emissions to be assessed together with those of other existing and approved projects on the Norwegian continental shelf. The case was brought by Greenpeace Nordic and Nature and Youth against the state, represented by the Ministry of Energy.
The court also clarified that the licence holders were not parties to the case, so the approvals being declared invalid does not mean the permits automatically fall away for the companies. Breidablikk and Tyrving are already producing, while Yggdrasil is expected to start production in 2027. The state was ordered to pay more than NOK 5 million in legal costs, and the Ministry of Energy must now reconsider the three approvals.
Source: Supreme Court of Norway
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于奥斯陆 Akersgata 的挪威最高法院大楼。来源：Alicia Fagerving，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0。 / Photo: The Supreme Court of Norway building on Akersgata in Oslo. Source: Alicia Fagerving, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
