Norway had initially intended to issue licences for deep-sea mineral mining across an area of almost 300,000 square kilometres between Norway, Greenland, and Svalbard. However, concerns from scientists and marine conservationists that this would impact the Earth's last major untouched region, namely the deep sea, were consistently prominent - little is known about the organisms residing at these depths, making it impossible to determine the extent of destruction caused by specific technical mining methods.
As a condition for their votes on the state budget, the three left-green parties have now successfully negotiated a moratorium on the issuance of these licences until at least 2029. This represents positive news for the European deep sea - and serves as a case study in how political objectives can be realised even when they are not shared by all parties. Other European nations may look to this as a precedent.
Source:
https://de.euronews.com/green/2025/12/04/norwegen-stoppt-umstrittenen-tiefseebergbau-bis-2029
