Climate organizations won a climate court case against the state – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country

– We are incredibly happy and relieved that the district court has delivered such a good and thorough judgment that gives us the right on all points. On the fact that these three oil fields have been illegally approved and we believe this must mean that production must be stopped immediately, says leader of Greenpeace, Frode Pleym, to news. – What does this judgment mean? – This means that we live in a state governed by the rule of law. In this lawsuit, we have a Supreme Court judgment behind us. And it is quite right that the state loses when the Ministry of Energy did not follow the High Court ruling. This judgment shows that the Ministry of Energy’s interpretation of the Supreme Court judgment was wrong and climate has won a crushing victory against the state in the district court, he says. Leader of Greenpeace, Frode Pleym. Photo: Rasmus Berg In June, Greenpeace and Nature and Youth joined forces and sued the Ministry of Oil. They believe the state broke the law when they gave permits to extract three specific oil projects. The case went before Oslo District Court in December. Now the district court has given them the right on all counts. It was VG who mentioned the case first. The judgment states that all three permits to develop the oil discoveries are invalid. According to the judgment, the state has breached so-called investigation requirements when approving the oil and gas fields Tyrving, Breidablikk and Yggdrasil in the North Sea. The environmental organizations have believed that this violates demands from the Supreme Court from another climate lawsuit, which went to court from 2017 to 2020. The state is ordered to pay damages and legal costs of NOK 3,260,000 to Nature and Youth and Greenpeace. WWF now congratulates Greenpeace and Nature and Youth and Norway on what they refer to as a “hugely important” victory: – We would like to congratulate Greenpeace and Nature and Youth on a major and important climate victory today. The government and the majority in the Storting have year after year pursued an oil policy that is completely unrelated to the climate goals. – It is difficult to understand when we know that fossil energy is the main cause of ever-escalating climate change. Now the district court has ruled that the state’s oil permits are invalid, because the climate consequences have not been assessed, says secretary general of WWF World Nature Fund, Karoline Andaur.



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