By John Smith •
Updated: 29 Nov 2024 • 14:50 • 2 minutes read
For a country that values environmental support, Norway can also be accused of paying lip service to the concept whilst actually profiting from oil exploration and now deep-sea mining.
Norway has indicated that it intends to allow deep-sea mining in the Arctic Ocean
Nearly a year ago, in January 2024, Norway s parliament approved the concept of deep-sea mining and confirmed that it intended to start issuing exploration licenses in 2025.
As soon as this was announced, a whole host of organisations including environmentalists, scientists, Greenpeace, WWF (The Worldwide Fund for Nature), the fishing industry and the European Union expressed their fear of causing serious damage to the Arctic Ocean.
Even a Norwegian Government body agrees in principle with WWF reasons for taking Norway to court
The WWF has taken the decision to sue Norway s government on the grounds that the impact assessment lawmakers used for their decision didn’t have sufficient information to evaluate the consequences of mining for the marine environment.
In an unusual turn of events, the Norwegian Environment Agency, itself a government body, has expressed a similar view.
The area under review for mining covers 280,000 square kilometres and it appears that there is little environmental data available for almost the entire expanse.
Metals important to create new green energy are hoped for but experts argue that the insufficient research has been undertaken
What is anticipated is the there will be opportunities once deep-sea mining commences to discover a number of important metals such as copper, cobalt, zinc and rare earths which are important for the creation of the much needed green energy transition.
Above the area in which the mining is likely to take place, the ocean is stocked with fish crustacea and mammals all of which are important to the environment and all of which could be adversely affected by the noise of drilling let alone other problems that could arise as according to WWF, so little research exists.
Companies likely to bid for licences have indicated that they would include marine biologists as they start the mining, but this could well be too little, too late.
Much depends on the outcome of the WWF suit against the Norwegian Government which may see a compromise whereby the issuing of licences is postponed until more research is undertaken.
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Married to Ophelia in Gibraltar in 1978, John has spent much of his life travelling on security print and minting business and visited every continent except Antarctica.
Having retired several years ago, the couple moved to their house in Estepona and John became a regular news writer for the EWN Media Group taking particular interest in Finance, Gibraltar and Costa del Sol Social Scene.
Currently he is acting as Editorial Consultant for the paper helping to shape its future development.
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