NYT: Norway's Supreme Court Hears Rights Challenge to Arctic Oil Drilling

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Norway’s Supreme Court Hears Rights Challenge to Arctic Oil Drilling
Environmental groups argue that exploratory drilling licenses violate a constitutional right to a healthy environment. It’s a test case taking on an industry that is key to the country’s economy.
By Henrik Pryser Libell and Isabella Kwai
Nov. 5, 2020
Updated 3:21 a.m. ET

OSLO, Norway — The Norwegian Constitution declares that all citizens have the right to a healthy environment. But Norway’s economy is built around an oil and gas industry that accounts for more than half of national exports.

Now the country’s Supreme Court is being asked to confront this apparent paradox, as it hears a challenge by environmental groups seeking to invalidate licenses for new oil exploration in the Arctic on constitutional grounds.

The case, which began on Wednesday before a bench of 15 voting Supreme Court judges — a procedure reserved for the most significant issues — is the first climate-change litigation to be brought under the Constitution’s environmental provisions, which were passed in 2014, and experts said it was unclear how the judges would rule.

Read more @ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/world/europe/norway-supreme-court-climate-change.html

The New York Times
@nytimes

The Supreme Court in Norway is hearing the first climate-change case to be brought under the country’s Constitution, which declares that citizens have the right to a healthy environment.

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