The search for natural resources and the need for alternative energy sources is a recurring theme in the world, especially when several countries face an energy crisis, as has been happening in recent months.
The Arctic is a region of the planet where it is estimated that there is a significant — and unexplored — amount of oil and natural gas.
But access to these resources is a controversial issue due to the environmental damage and territorial disputes it can cause.
There is just one court case underway to decide whether energy companies have the right to drill into the Arctic ice sheets in search of oil and gas.
This is a lawsuit brought by a group of environmental activists against the Norwegian government at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) over exploitation in the Arctic.
This case may indicate to what extent it will be possible to exploit natural resources in this area in the future.
Who owns the Arctic and how many resources does it have?
The Arctic Circle, located at the Earth’s North Pole, may contain about 160 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 30% of natural gas, according to estimates from the US Geological Survey.
The countries with territory or territorial waters within the Arctic Circle are Norway, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, the United States, Canada and Denmark (which also owns Greenland).
As the Arctic is a predominantly water area, there is no international treaty that protects it from economic development, as in the case of Antarctica at the South Pole.
Global warming has melted part of the region in the far north of the planet, making it easier to drill, explore and extract resources.
What does the Norwegian trial consist of?
Norway is the largest oil producer in Western Europe. Since 2016, the government has granted a series of licenses to explore sources of oil and gas in the Barents Sea, within the Arctic Circle.
But in 2021, six young Norwegians and two environmental groups, Greenpeace Nordic and Young Friends of the Earth, decided to go to the European court to try to stop the concessions.
The activists argue that “by allowing new drilling during a climate crisis, Norway is violating fundamental human rights”.
They say drilling in the Arctic can contaminate the polar ice sheets and accelerate the rate at which they melt.
Young people cite Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to life, and Article 8, which protects the right to family life and home.
“By complaining, we can have a chance to stop this catastrophic oil drilling,” says Mia Chamberlain, one of the activists.
Lasse Eriksen Bjoern, an activist for the indigenous Sami people in northern Norway, told Reuters news agency that drilling could harm fisheries and their way of life.
Three Norwegian courts rejected the complaint, but the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, decided to consider the case and asked the Norwegian government to take a position on the activists’ arguments.
Norway responded on April 26 saying it was able to continue exploring for oil and gas without affecting its goal of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Furthermore, he added that it would be harmful for Norwegian society to stop oil and gas production before more reliable renewable energy is available. The government also asked the court to dismiss the case, saying there will be an increasing demand for resources from Norway because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The ECtHR is considering making this an “impact case”, meaning it could set a precedent for similar cases in the European Union. If so, there could be a sentence in the next few months.
In recent years, environmental activists have increasingly turned to the courts to force governments and companies to adopt a greener approach.
In 2021, a Dutch court ruled that by 2030 Royal Dutch Shell’s emissions must be 45% lower than in 2019 — a much larger reduction than the company had previously promised. The case was presented by the NGO Friends of the Earth.
Three years earlier, Colombia’s supreme court ordered the government to take urgent action to stop deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, claiming it restricted children’s rights to a healthy environment.
Who else drills the Arctic?
Russian oil companies have been operating in the Arctic for more than a decade. In 2020, there was a large spill of diesel oil in its arctic territory.
The United States is considering allowing its oil companies to drill in northern Alaska despite the catastrophic oil spill from the Exxon Valdez oil tanker in Alaska in 1989.
What rights do Arctic countries have?
All countries with territories in the Arctic Circle have rights over the ocean floor near their coasts.
They may also establish exclusive economic zones, up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the coast.
In these areas, they have the right to fish, build infrastructure and extract natural resources.
Countries can extend these zones if they show that their land mass goes further into the water.
There is currently a dispute over a 1,721-kilometer chain of mountains under the sea, the so-called Lomonosov Range, which crosses the North Pole.
Canada, Russia and Greenland claim this territory as their own. Whoever emerges victorious could also claim 55,000 square miles of sea around the North Pole.
In 2007, Russian explorers alarmed their Arctic neighbors by planting their national flag at the bottom of the North Pole sea.
