Norwegian Supreme Court Case (continued)
- ywacc.ngo
- Nov 19, 2020
- 3 min read
Hi everyone! This week's post will be a continuation of last week's article discussing the possible human rights violation currently occurring in Norway.
When discussing human rights, we don’t often consider our undeniable right to a healthy environment. In fact, this right wasn’t even recognized by most countries and the international community until the 19th and 20th centuries. Even then, environmental efforts were mostly aimed towards just the conservation of wildlife and didn’t encapsulate a wide scope of environmental concerns. It wasn’t until 1972, during the Stockholm Conference, was the right to a healthy environment explicitly recognized in a document of international law. The Ideas generated at the Stockholm Conference also heavily influenced the United Nations Environment Programme, the UN’s Conventions on the Law of the Sea, and the creation of an Environment Committee at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. To preface this presentation, I’d like to examine this article in the Norwegian Constitution, translated in English that discusses this right.
Article 112 of the Norwegian Constitution reads,
"Every person has a right to an environment that is conducive to health and to natural surroundings whose productivity and diversity are preserved. Natural resources should be made use of on the basis of comprehensive long-term considerations whereby this right will be safeguarded for future generations as well.
In order to safeguard their right in accordance with the foregoing paragraph, citizens are entitled to be informed of the state of the natural environment and of the effects of any encroachments on nature that are planned or commenced.
The State authorities shall issue further provisions for the implementation of these principles."
Just this month, environmental activists in Norway urged Norway’s Supreme Court to block the drilling for oil and natural gasses that is currently taking place in the Arctic. Environmental organizations, such as GreenPeace and Nature&Youth of Norway, claim that by continuing this practice, these major oil companies are infringing upon Article 112 of the Constitution, the Norwegian citizens’ right to a clean and healthy environment. Activists seek to invalidate the licenses for new oil exploration, and they’ve already garnered support from David Boyd, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, as well as activist Greta Thunberg. GreenPeace and Nature&Youth of Norway claim that the 2016 license granting the privilege for oil exploration was hastily drawn out and didn't consider the serious implications for future generations.
At this time, I'd like to examine the paradox Norway seemingly gets itself stuck into. Norway consistently ranks in the top 5 at least, usually the top 3, for being the most sustainable and green country in the world. 95% of their energy comes from renewable energy sources such as hydropower, and the capital city of Norway has banned cars since 2019. But despite all these environmental initiatives, in 2019, Norway was reported to pump over "1.6 million barrels of oil a day from its offshore operations."
So what's going on?
Norway's economy thrives off oil and gas exports, with over 55% of their exports in 2018 being petroleum gas or crude petroleum.
While there are efforts highlighted in the Paris Accords to reduce the prevalence of activities that deplete our natural resources, Norway leads ahead of Russia, Canada, and the United States in harnessing the oil of the Arctic.
In fact, this isn't the first time Norwegian activist groups have sued major oil corporations and the government for violating the constitution and the Paris Agreement. In 2017, GreenPeace sued the Norwegian government for the same reasons, over Arctic oil drilling licences, but the case was later dismissed by an Oslo Court who found no infractions.
As this current trial plays out, it'll be interesting to see how the international community reacts as this case brings up questions of sustainability that must be discussed. Even though we may not often think about the environment we live in, where we go to school, where we play out sports, our right to a healthy and clean environment is undeniable. While this is considered a privilege in some countries, the trials in Norway remind us that we must, as an international community, enforce it as a right for future generations and for ourselves.
Updates:
The plaintiffs, GreenPeace and Nature&Youth Norway actually lost this case, and the Norwegian Supreme Court issued a new arctic drilling license. This license is the 25th issues by the government and "covers nine areas, eight of which are located in the Barents Sea and one further south in the Norwegian Sea, including 136 blocks across both seas" (Taraldsen, 2020).
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