Norway has given the go-ahead to open up for deep sea mining in the Arctic region after a vote in parliament Tuesday, making it the first country to open up its seabed to the controversial activity.

The proposal garnered 80 votes in favour and 20 against, after the country’s minority centre-left government secured a preliminary parliamentary majority for the bill in December through an agreement with conservative opposition parties.

Norway’s government and its supporters say that mining will facilitate profitable and sustainable mining in the deep sea that will help accelerate the energy transition, despite massive opposition from scientists, fishery organisations, and the international community.

“The deep sea is the world’s largest carbon reservoir and our last untouched wilderness, with unique wildlife and important habitats that do not exist anywhere else on Earth,” said Kaja Lonne Fjaertoft, global policy lead for WWF’s No Deep Seabed Mining Initiative.

“The parliament’s decision to move forward with seabed mining against all expert advice, with an impact assessment that has been widely criticised, is a catastrophe for the ocean, and leaves a big stain on Norway’s reputation as a responsible ocean nation”, said Fjaertoft.

The area that would be opened up for exploration, which is an area the size of Ecuador, is situated in the Arctic between Svalbard, Greenland, Iceland, and Jan Mayen island.

Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland said it would help Norway reduce its dependence on other countries for critical raw materials such as copper, zinc, and cobalt.

Aasland argued that Norway would be able to do this in a sustainable and responsible way.

However, according to the Norwegian Environmental Agency, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for exploration and extraction in the area was inadequate.

The proposal went through a domestic consultation process, with several scientific organisations, including the Centre for Deep Sea Research at the University of Bergen, issuing stern warnings against the government plans, which the Petroleum and Energy Ministry in the end decided to ignore.

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters also argued against allowing mining extraction until more is known about the consequences, and earlier this month co-authored a statement from the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) on potential impacts from deep seabed mining.

Those included the killing of biota in areas directly mined at, sediments discarded on site being likely to be unable to recover for decades or centuries, and losses in habitat structure potentially leading to indefinite reductions in biodiversity.

“For too long, we have treated the ocean as an endless dumping ground for human waste and taken life under water for granted. It is deeply worrying that Norway wants to bring yet another extractive industry into one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on earth. The only silver lining of today is that the first extraction licenses must be passed through parliament. The fight for the oceans continues”, said Anne-Sophie Roux, deep sea mining Europe lead at Sustainable Ocean Alliance.

The EU Commission has also voiced its concern about the environmental impact of the plans and 119 European parliamentarians wrote an open letter to their Norwegian parliament, asking members to vote against deep sea mining.

More than 800 scientists have called for a pause on deep sea mining globally, arguing that the impacts of mining on the deep sea have yet to be adequately understood and thousands of species have yet to be discovered.

As well, 24 countries have called for a moratorium or pause on deep sea mining., including France, Germany, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Vanuatu.

By Rebecca Gualandi – rebecca@carbon-pulse.com

** Click here to sign up to our twice-weekly biodiversity newsletter **