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ENVIRONMENT

Norway gives green light to deep-sea mining

Norway's centre-left government announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with opposition parties to open parts of its seabed to mining, spurring angry reactions from environmentalists.

Published: 5 December 2023 14:19 CET
Pictured is Norway's parliament.
Norway has voted to allow deep-sea mining in parliament. Pictured is Norway's parliament.Photo by Marco Süssi on Unsplash

Already a major oil and gas producer, the Scandinavian country could become one of the first countries to explore the ocean floor for minerals crucial for renewable energies, a controversial practice because of its potential impact on marine eco-systems.

“We need minerals because we want to lead a green transition in the form of fuel cells and solar panels, of electric cars and mobile phones,” Labour member of parliament Marianne Sivertsen Naess said during a press conference.

“Norway could in the future contribute to larger access [to these minerals] without being dependent on countries that it is not always good to be completely dependent upon,” she said.

The Labour-dominated coalition government in June proposed allowing mining of the country’s seabed, which might hold sizeable quantities of copper, cobalt, zinc and rare earths.

However, without a majority in the parliament, it needed the support of opposition parties.

On Tuesday, the Conservative Party and the populist right agreed to support the gradual opening up of areas of the Greenland and Barents Seas in the
Arctic.

The government assured it would impose strict environmental safeguards.

“Exploitation will only be authorised only if studies carried out show that it can be done in durable and reasonable ways,” conservative MP Bard Ludvig
Thorheim said.

The agreement between the four political parties angered environmental groups.

“We will work to stop every deep-sea mining project presented to the Norwegian Parliament,” said Frode Pleym, head of Greenpeace Norway. “We will not allow Norway to destroy the unique life in the deep sea, not in the Arctic nor anywhere else.”

NGOs and scientists have warned that deep-sea mining could damage habitats and harm species that are little understood, but are potentially important to
the food chain.

In addition, they point to the risk of disrupting the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon emitted by human activities, and the noise that could disturb
species such as whales.

Several countries, including France and the UK, have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining.

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ENVIRONMENT

Which city in Norway faces the biggest rise in sea levels?

Much of Norway's coast is still rising due to the rebound from the glaciers which melted 10,000 years ago. But while that lessens the risk of rising sea-levels it doesn't remove it. Here are the cities likely to be worst affected.

Published: 29 April 2024 16:28 CEST
Which city in Norway faces the biggest rise in sea levels?

Norway’s “steep and rocky” coast, together with post-glacial rebound had led to stable or falling sea levels historically in Norway, according to the authors of a new joint report from the Norwegian Mapping Authority and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

“Unlike other coastal countries, Norway is therefore yet to feel the impacts of sea-level rise,” the report reads. “The danger is that this can foster a false sense of security, where the long-term risks are not understood or ignored.”

The researchers found that sea level rise due to global warming had already started to reverse the relative decline in sea levels in much of Western and Southern Norway, meaning relative sea levels are now starting to creep up. 

“The results from this report show that sea-level rise is starting to push up water levels in some parts of the country, most notably in Western and Southern Norway,” they wrote. “Owing to global warming, Norway is transitioning from a country with on average falling or stable sea levels, to one with rising sea levels.” 

So which cities are most affected? 

Stavanger is the city likely to be worst affected by rising sea levels between now and the year 2100, the report found. 

In the highest emissions scenario, in an extreme scenario of “rapid ice sheet loss” from Antarctica, the city could experience a maximum sea level rise of close to two metres (1.92m).  

This is nearly half a metre more than the relative sea level rise faced by Oslo in this extreme circumstance and significantly more than Tromsø can expect. 

Bergen, was however not far behind with a maximum sea level rise in this “rapid ice sheet loss scenario” of up to 1.85m. 

In the much more likely scenario of 3C temperature rise, the researchers predicted that sea levels in Stavanger were most likely to rise by some 45cm, compared to 13cm in Oslo and 27cm in Tromsø. 

Lise Peterson, emergency manager in Stavanger, said that the city’s built-up harbour area was most exposed. 

“The biggest challenges are down here where we already have buildings,” she told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK, when their reporters visited, conceding that Stavanger was “in a bad position” even if the world met its most ambitious emissions reduction targets. 

Even so, the rise in the sea level Norway is facing remains between 40 percent and 70 percent of the global average, meaning most other countries face even bigger problems.   

But the researchers pointed out that even a rise in sea levels of 0.1m would lead to a tripling of the flood risk in many locations. 

“This means that, unless timely adaptation measures are taken, flooding will develop into a chronic problem,” they warned. 

Lookin further out until 2300, the researchers predicted a much more severe rise in sea level rise, with a likely rise of between 1.4 and 4m in a high emission scenario and a maximum rise of 16m possible but very unlikely.  

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