By AFP
November 27, 2024
Protesters hold placards during a demonstration against seabed mining outside the Norwegian Parliament building in Oslo - Copyright NTB/AFP Javad Parsa
The World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) Norwegian chapter will have its day in court Thursday, after it sued Norway for opening up its seabed to mining before performing sufficient impact studies.
Already Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, Norway could become one of the first countries to authorise seabed mining, arguing the importance of not relying on China for minerals essential for renewable technology.
While deep-sea mining is contentious due to its potential impact on vulnerable marine ecosystems, Norway’s parliament in January formally gave its green light to open up parts of its seabed to exploration.
“We believe the government is violating Norwegian law by now opening up for a new and potentially destructive industry without adequately assessing the consequences,” Karoline Andaur, CEO of WWF-Norway, said in a statement.
Norway “must halt the rushed process, must actively support a national and global moratorium — a temporary ban on seabed mining until there is sufficient knowledge,” Andaur said in an online meeting earlier in November.
With their lawsuit, WWF-Norway is also calling on the Norwegian government to stop giving public support to mining companies for the exploration phase and to allocate these funds to independent research institutions.
That would help “to close the many knowledge gaps about marine life”, Andaur said.
The trial will run until December 5.
– Possible dangers –
On April 12, Norway’s Ministry of Energy announced that it was opening up an area of the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea to exploration, with the aim of awarding the first licences in the first half of 2025.
Within the area, which is the size of the United Kingdom, it has designated locations covering 38 percent of the area suitable for exploration for a first licensing round.
“Before any exploitation can begin, it has to be shown that the proposed exploitation can take place in a sustainable and responsible manner,” Astrid Bergmal, state secretary at the energy ministry, told AFP in an email.
The first projects will also have to be approved by parliament, Bergmal added.
“The first phase will consist of mapping and exploration, which has little environmental impact,” she said.
But critics see this stage as a first step towards exploitation.
According to several NGOs, opening up the seabed poses an additional threat to an ecosystem that is little-known and has already been weakened by global warming.
Possible dangers include the destruction of marine habitats and organisms, noise and light pollution, as well as the risk of chemical leaks from machines and species being displaced.
Norwegian authorities meanwhile stress that by allowing the prospecting they want to fill in the gaps in knowledge.
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.
COP16 biodiversity talks to restart in February: UN
By AFP
November 28, 2024
Bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, in April 2024 - Copyright AFP/File Joe Klamar
Crunch United Nations talks to find funding to curb the destruction of nature will resume in Rome in February, the UN said on Thursday, after negotiations this month in Colombia ended without a deal.
The largest summit yet on biodiversity — the so-called COP16 talks in Cali, Colombia — were aimed at boosting efforts to protect nature from deforestation, overexploitation, climate change and pollution.
But the meeting, which stretched hours into extra time, ended on November 2 with no agreement on a roadmap to ramp up funding for species protection. Many delegates had already left for home by then, meaning the Colombian presidency was unable to establish a quorum.
The new round of talks will be held at the headquarters of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization from February 25 to 27 to tackle issues “left unresolved following the suspension of the meeting”, the UN said in a statement.
“In the weeks to come, and during our meeting in Rome this February, I will work alongside parties to build the trust and consensus needed to achieve Peace with Nature,” said Colombia’s Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, the COP16 president.
She added that securing a key financial accord “will be central to our efforts”.
Money has been a particularly thorny subject at recent UN environment negotiations, as nations face global political and economic uncertainties.
Negotiators at fractious UN climate talks were able to approve a deal in the early hours of Sunday morning after two weeks of chaotic and bitter wrangling, but the $300 billion a year pledge from wealthy historic polluters was immediately dismissed as insultingly low by many poorer nations.
– Deadlocked –
The Cali summit, which drew an unprecedented 23,000 participants, was tasked with assessing, and ramping up, progress toward reaching a range of targets set in Canada two years ago to halt humankind’s rapacious destruction of the natural world by 2030.
They include placing 30 percent of land and sea areas under protection, reducing pollution, and phasing out agricultural and other subsidies harmful to nature.
For this purpose, it was agreed in 2022 that $200 billion per year be made available to protect biodiversity by 2030, including the transfer of $30 billion per year from rich to poor nations.
The Cali meeting did make advances on Indigenous representation and gene profit sharing.
But negotiators, largely split between poor and rich country blocs, were deadlocked over the biggest ask — to lay out a detailed funding plan.
That was despite new research showing that more than a quarter of assessed plants and animals are now at risk of extinction.
Only 17.6 percent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 percent of the ocean and coastal areas, are estimated to be protected and conserved.
By AFP
November 28, 2024
Bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, in April 2024 - Copyright AFP/File Joe Klamar
Crunch United Nations talks to find funding to curb the destruction of nature will resume in Rome in February, the UN said on Thursday, after negotiations this month in Colombia ended without a deal.
The largest summit yet on biodiversity — the so-called COP16 talks in Cali, Colombia — were aimed at boosting efforts to protect nature from deforestation, overexploitation, climate change and pollution.
But the meeting, which stretched hours into extra time, ended on November 2 with no agreement on a roadmap to ramp up funding for species protection. Many delegates had already left for home by then, meaning the Colombian presidency was unable to establish a quorum.
The new round of talks will be held at the headquarters of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization from February 25 to 27 to tackle issues “left unresolved following the suspension of the meeting”, the UN said in a statement.
“In the weeks to come, and during our meeting in Rome this February, I will work alongside parties to build the trust and consensus needed to achieve Peace with Nature,” said Colombia’s Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, the COP16 president.
She added that securing a key financial accord “will be central to our efforts”.
Money has been a particularly thorny subject at recent UN environment negotiations, as nations face global political and economic uncertainties.
Negotiators at fractious UN climate talks were able to approve a deal in the early hours of Sunday morning after two weeks of chaotic and bitter wrangling, but the $300 billion a year pledge from wealthy historic polluters was immediately dismissed as insultingly low by many poorer nations.
– Deadlocked –
The Cali summit, which drew an unprecedented 23,000 participants, was tasked with assessing, and ramping up, progress toward reaching a range of targets set in Canada two years ago to halt humankind’s rapacious destruction of the natural world by 2030.
They include placing 30 percent of land and sea areas under protection, reducing pollution, and phasing out agricultural and other subsidies harmful to nature.
For this purpose, it was agreed in 2022 that $200 billion per year be made available to protect biodiversity by 2030, including the transfer of $30 billion per year from rich to poor nations.
The Cali meeting did make advances on Indigenous representation and gene profit sharing.
But negotiators, largely split between poor and rich country blocs, were deadlocked over the biggest ask — to lay out a detailed funding plan.
That was despite new research showing that more than a quarter of assessed plants and animals are now at risk of extinction.
Only 17.6 percent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 percent of the ocean and coastal areas, are estimated to be protected and conserved.
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