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ENVIRONMENT

Norway takes next step in controversial deep-sea mining plans

Norway's government has taken another step toward its controversial plan to open its seabed to deep-sea mining, proposing areas suitable for exploration.

Published: 27 June 2024 12:49 CEST
A person holding up a placard at a protest against deep sea mining.
Norway has taken another step in its deep sea mining plans. Pictured is a file photo from a deep sea mining protest. Photo by Kenzo Tribouillard/ AFP

Already Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, Norway could become one of the first countries to authorise seabed mining, insisting on the importance of not relying on China or authoritarian countries for minerals essential for renewable technology.

“The Ministry of Energy has presented a proposal for the announcement of the first licensing round for seabed minerals on the Norwegian continental shelf for public consultation,” the government said in a statement issued Wednesday.

“The proposal sets out the areas where the companies will be able to apply for exploitation licenses, so that exploration and gathering knowledge … can begin,” it said.

The World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) Norwegian chapter said in late May it planned to take legal action against Oslo for failing to perform sufficient impact studies.

On April 12th, the energy ministry announced it was opening up an area for exploration in the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea — of the size of the UK, according to WWF — with the aim of awarding the first licences in the first half of 2025.

The blocks proposed Wednesday cover around 38 percent of this area.

Exploration of the zone will make it possible to know “whether there is a basis for sustainable mineral exploitation on the Norwegian shelf,” the government said.

If not, deep-sea mining will not be authorised.

Earlier this year, the Norwegian parliament gave the green light to open up parts of Norway’s seabed to exploration.

NGOs and scientists have criticised the plan, warning of a lack of knowledge about the environmental impact.

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

Oslo maintains that by allowing the prospecting, it wants to fill in gaps in knowledge to determine whether undersea mining can take place without serious impact on the environment.

In early 2023, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate published a report concluding that “substantial resources are in place on the seabed” including minerals such as copper, zinc and cobalt.

Among other uses, they are crucial for the manufacturing of batteries, wind turbines, computers and mobile phones.

Some 98 percent of rare earth minerals used in the EU are imported from China.

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POLITICS

Norway’s government plans to introduce age limit for social media

Age limit rules that require electronic identification will be introduced for social media users in Norway, the country’s PM Jonas Gahr Støre said Tuesday.

Published: 3 July 2024 11:56 CEST
Norway’s government plans to introduce age limit for social media

Norway’s government, in the autumn, will set an age limit for social media use in the Nordic country, Jonas Gahr Støre has pledged.

“We must get an age limit that we can enforce. And we have to get stricter regulation of functionality and content that is obviously harmful to children,” he told public broadcaster NRK.

The exact age at which users will need to be to log into social media in Norway has not been determined yet, but the limit will be strictly enforced through the use of electronic identification to verify the user’s age.

The PM also said that the government would ensure that content aimed at children and young people would be regulated more strictly, with these rules also applying to things like autoplay and algorithms.

“We are facing challenges that we cannot solve alone. It is a task for politics to address this,” Støre said.

A platform for electronic identification has yet to be clarified. However, e-IDs are fairly widespread in Norway and are issued by both the public and private sectors.

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority and Norwegian Consumer Council have previously criticised the proposal to use a digital identification system to limit who can access social media.

“Age verification challenges the basic rights children have, such as the right to participate, freedom of expression and information gathering,” Inger Lise Blyverket, director of the Norwegian Consumer Council, told the newspaper Klassekampen in May.

Meanwhile, the data protection authority said that those who do not have access to an electronic ID may have to choose more obscure and possibly unsafe platforms.

The Children’s Ombudsman expressed scepticism that an age limit can solve the challenges children face regarding social media and pointed out that most social media already have a recommended age limit.

Even when the government begins with its plans to introduce an age limit for social media in the autumn it still currently isn’t clear when the regulations would actually be introduced.

According to an opinion poll from the data analysis firm Opinion, a majority of Norwegians are in favour of introducing an age limit for social media use.

A majority of the parties in Norway’s parliament are also in favour of introducing restrictions.

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