Oslo, Norway – Today, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Court issued its Advisory Opinion in the case Greenpeace Nordic and Natur og Ungdom (Young Friends of the Earth Norway) brought against the Norwegian State.[1] The Court agrees with the organisations and confirms that under European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) law, climate assessments for new fossil fuel projects must include not only the emissions produced at the drilling site, but also those resulting from the subsequent combustion of the extracted oil and gas, wherever it takes place. The Norwegian government was therefore wrong to exclude these downstream emissions when approving new drilling.

”What the EFTA Court delivered today is a damning indictment of Norway’s polluting exports. It is entirely in line with recent legal developments on this topic. We’ve seen it in the UK, in the local court in Norway, in the US and Guyana and now also for the first time at a supranational court. The Norwegian government can no longer ignore that Norwegian oil and gas harms people and the planet once it’s extracted”, said Frode Pleym, head of Greenpeace in Norway.

The case was referred to the EFTA Court by the Borgarting Appeals Court upon request from the Norwegian government in the summer of 2024. The question posed before the judges was whether or not the European Union Environmental Impact Assessment Directive (EU Project or EIA Directive) requires Norwegian authorities to assess the climate impacts of oil and gas from combustion. Today, the Court has confirmed that such a duty does exist and goes a step further by confirming that authorities and courts must do everything in their power to remedy the breach.

In January 2024, in a historic win for Greenpeace Norway and Natur og Ungdom, the Oslo District Court found the approvals of three oil and gas projects in the North Sea invalid. Norwegian authorities failed to carry out appropriate impact assessments of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) as they did not take emissions from combustion into account. These GHG emissions, known as Scope III, account for approximately 95% of the climate harmful effects of the project.[2]

The Norwegian government appealed and requested that a key question of the case, namely regarding Scope III emissions, be sent to the EFTA Court in Luxembourg for an Advisory Opinion on how the European Union Environmental Impact Assessment Directive should be interpreted.[3] This appeal was launched after the British Supreme Court, in a very similar case, found an oil development in the UK illegal because the authorities had not carried out environmental impact assessments for burning the oil and gas.

“Climate scientists have documented that these oil projects will lead to more than 100,000 people dying earlier as a result of increased heat. I’m glad the EFTA Court agrees with us that people deserve to know this kind of information before the state approves new oil fields,” said Sigrid Hoddevik Losnegård, leader of Nature and Youth.

Public authorities delivering permits for drilling can no longer claim there is doubt: the public has a right to know the full impact of oil and gas projects before the delivery of the permit. This ruling could open the door for more rigorous climate assessments of fossil fuel projects across Europe and it may set a precedent for other national courts as well.

The case is set to be heard in the Appeals Court in September. The organisations will be facing the Norwegian State with both the EFTA Advisory Opinion and a recent Supreme Court ruling in their favour, providing high chances of a new victory, seeing as the opinion is expected to carry significant weight in the judges’ deliberations and the resulting judgement.

ENDS

Notes:

[1] Judgment of the EFTA Court, 21 May 2025 

[2] The 95% figure is calculated by Greenpeace Nordic and submitted as a claim to the European Court of Human Rights in Additional Observation of 16 August 2024, in app. no. 34068/21, Greenpeace Nordic and others v. Norway (p. 29)

[3] Request for an Advisory Opinion from the EFTA Court by Borgarting Court of Appeal 

Contacts:

Frode Pleym, Head of Greenpeace in Norway: +47 97 30 73 78, [email protected]

Sigrid Hoddevik Losnegård, Head of Natur og Ungdom (Young Friends of the Earth Norway): +47 405 29 471, [email protected]

Greenpeace International Press Desk: +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), [email protected]