(Oslo) The Norwegian Parliament gave the green light on Tuesday to the opening of part of the country’s seabed to mining prospecting, despite warnings from experts around its uncertain impact on ecosystems.
By providing 280,000 km2 of its seabed – the equivalent of half the surface area of France – Norway becomes one of the first countries in the world to embark on this controversial practice in an unexplored region.
The government’s proposal was adopted by 80 votes to 20. The possible exploitation of these same funds will have to be the subject of a new examination by Parliament.
“All Norwegian scientific institutions say it’s too risky. We don’t know enough about ecosystems to mitigate damage [potentiels, NDLR] », Reacted to AFP Haldis Tjeldflaat Helle, from the Norwegian branch of Greenpeace.
NGOs and scientists warn of the destruction of habitats and species still unknown but potentially crucial for the food chain, the risk of disrupting the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon emitted by human activities or even noise affecting species like whales.
Several demonstrators gathered in front of Parliament to express their discontent.
“It’s a shame because Norway risks creating a precedent”, which will allow “other countries to do the same”, lamented Frode Pleym, head of the Norwegian branch of Greenpeace and present at the demonstration.
At the beginning of December, the minority government coalition secured the support of the conservative party and the populist right to gradually open up, at the cost of reinforced environmental requirements, an area of the Greenland Sea and the Barents Sea in the Arctic.
Norway thus hopes to become a major global producer of minerals, necessary, according to the government, to succeed in its energy transition.
Copper, zinc, cobalt…
“We need minerals [car] we must lead a green transition in the form of solar cells and panels, electric cars, mobile phones,” Labor MP Marianne Sivertsen Naess explained in December.
At the same time, the country wants to reduce its dependence on other countries, such as Russia or China – the world’s leading producer of rare earths – for its raw materials.
“Norway will perhaps be able in the future to contribute to having greater access without being dependent on countries on which it is perhaps not desirable to be totally dependent,” she added.
According to estimates from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the country’s continental shelf most likely contains significant deposits of minerals, including copper, cobalt, zinc and rare earths, useful in batteries, turbines wind turbines, computers and other mobile phones.
“Norway seems to have this idea that mining will be the solution for the ecological transition, which is really strange,” according to Haldis Tjeldflaat Helle of Greenpeace.
More and more countries in the world prefer, on the contrary, to turn away from it and favor the precautionary principle on this issue, due to lack of sufficient data on the risks it presents, argues the activist.
Several countries, including France and the United Kingdom, have called for a moratorium on underwater mining.
The government, for its part, assures that no project will be implemented without a detailed evaluation beforehand. The first operations will have to be approved by Parliament before they can be implemented.
The condition: this must be able to be done “sustainably and reasonably”, specified the conservative elected official in charge of the file, Bård Ludvig Thorheim.