OSLO (Reuters) -Environmental groups said on Thursday they had demanded an immediate halt to the ongoing development of three Norwegian oilfields, seeking a court injunction against the country’s government.
Greenpeace and Nature and Youth said they had asked the Oslo District Court to put on hold Equinor’s Breidablikk and Aker BP’s Yggdrasil and Tyrving fields, arguing the government had failed to assess their climate impact.
“Their recent approvals violate the Norwegian constitution and Norway’s international human rights commitments, as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,” the two environmental groups said in a statement.
Norway is western Europe’s largest oil producing nation and the biggest supplier of natural gas to Europe, and the government says its petroleum resources are vital to the continent’s energy security.
Greenpeace and Nature and Youth have long sought to get the courts to intervene against Norway’s oil and gas production, particularly in the Arctic region, but the Supreme Court in 2020 dismissed a major lawsuit.
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Anna Ringstrom)
