Environmental groups will urge Norway’s supreme court to block oil and gas drilling in the Arctic in a landmark case beginning this week that centers on whether the government’s policies violate rights enshrined in the constitution.
The odds seem stacked against the plaintiffs, Greenpeace Nordic and Nature & Youth, in the hearing set for November 4-12. Two lower courts have already sided with the government’s argument that it had the authority under environmental laws to permit exploration in the remote Barents Sea.
But the environmentalists have rallied influential backers to their cause this year, including David Boyd, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, and the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. She says Arctic oil should stay in the ground. Read on.
