Norway must reassess oil field approvals after climate ruling

Norway’s government must reassess approvals for two oil fields and the Yggdrasil development area after the Supreme Court rejected its appeal in a case brought by environmental groups.

The ruling does not automatically cancel the approvals for their holders, who were not parties to the case. The court said the government must decide whether to revoke the approvals or, if legally possible once the procedural errors have been corrected, uphold them.

The case concerned Breidablikk, Tyrving and Yggdrasil, which comprises three fields in the North Sea. Breidablikk and Tyrving had already begun producing oil; Yggdrasil was expected to start production in 2027.

Greenpeace Nordic and Natur og Ungdom challenged the government over its assessment of emissions from burning the oil and gas extracted from the projects. The Supreme Court case formally concerned the government’s 2024 decisions not to revoke the original development approvals. A lower court had found those decisions invalid.

By six votes to five, the Supreme Court found that the projects’ combustion emissions should have been assessed alongside those from existing and approved oil and gas projects on Norway’s continental shelf. The majority said a further government review in May 2026 had corrected some earlier shortcomings, but not the missing cumulative assessment.

The government had argued that the later reviews met the legal requirements. The five dissenting judges agreed that emissions from each project had to be assessed, but did not consider a combined assessment of other Norwegian projects necessary. They would have upheld the 2024 decisions.

The majority’s interpretation also sets a requirement for future assessments. It did not, however, require project emissions to be assessed against the remaining global carbon budget.