The Norwegian branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says it intends to sue the government for inadequate impact assessments ahead of its decision to open Norway's seabed to mining.
Earlier in the year, the Norwegian Parliament approved exploration in this field, seen as the first step towards actual mining.
The Energy Ministry announced on 12 April the opening of an area covering 281,000 square kilometres of ocean, equal to the size of the United Kingdom, between the Barents Sea in the Arctic and the Greenland Sea, with the aim of granting the first permits by the first half of 2025.
Norway argues that this would reduce its reliance on countries like China for essential minerals crucial to the green transition.
WWF-Norway Secretary General Karoline Andaur said her organisation believed the decision, which made Norway one of the first countries globally to approve undersea mining, was illegal.
“We believe the state is breaking Norwegian law when they now open a new and potentially destructive industry without having investigated the consequences sufficiently," she said.
"It will create a dangerous precedent if we allow the government to ignore its own rules, override all environmental advice and manage our common natural resources blindly," Andaur added.
WWF claims impact studies carried out by the Norwegian Energy Ministry did not meet the criteria set by Norwegian legislation.
During the consultation organised by the authorities, the public Agency for Environmental Protection reached a similar conclusion, pointing out that there was evidently insufficient knowledge about nature, technology, and environmental consequences.
In response, Oslo said the planned prospecting would seek to gather knowledge to determine whether undersea mining could occur without severe environmental impacts. If not, it would not be approved.
According to the authorities, the country’s continental shelf likely contains substantial deposits of metals and minerals, including copper, cobalt, lithium, zinc and rare earth elements, used in batteries, wind turbines, computers and mobile phones.
