Norway will allow the dumping of mining waste in one of its fjords: the government he won a court case against two environmental organizations that had been opposing the plan for years because it was considered a threat to the biodiversity of the sea. After a 15-year dispute, the private company Nordic Mining has obtained permission to dispose of 170 million tons of mining waste in fjord di Førdein the Vestland region, in the south-west of the country.
Naturvernforbund and Natur og Ungdom, the two environmental organizations involved in the case, were sentenced to pay legal costs of around 130 thousand euros. The case could be appealed, but the two organizations argue that they have too limited financial resources to pursue the case.
A Norwegian government spokesperson said there is awareness that this is an environmentally harmful practice, but that “there are currently no alternatives for storing such waste.” Besides Norway there are only two other countries that still grant new licenses for the disposal of waste at sea: Papua New Guinea and Turkey.
The ruling on waste dumping was issued at a time in which the Norwegian parliament has approved a law that will allow the controversial practice of mining from the seabed: it is considered by many to be essential to obtain minerals increasingly in demand by the industry global for the energy transition, such as lithium, scandium and cobalt, but at the same time it is also highly criticized due to doubts about its environmental impact and because according to critics it could lead to the destruction of a large part of the seabed on which it is made.
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