Norway has suspended plans to open its waters to deep-sea mining next year, which triggered controversy and a lawsuit by environmental group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a party allied with the centre-left government said on Sunday.
“There will be no announcement of exploration rights for deep-sea mining in 2024 or 2025,” the Socialist Left Party said in a statement.
It said it had extracted the measure from the government, which lacks a parliamentary majority, as a concession in return for supporting its 2025 budget.
Norway, Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, had looked set to become one of the first countries to authorise seabed mining, arguing that it did not want to rely on China for minerals essential for renewable energy technology.
Deep-sea mining is controversial for its potential impact on vulnerable marine ecosystems.
But Norway’s parliament formally gave its green light in January to open up parts of its seabed to exploration.
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