A NORWEGIAN appeals court ruled today that the government can approve oil-drilling licences in the Arctic despite attempts by environmental groups to stop them.

The court upheld a ruling which acquitted the government of charges — made by climate groups Nature and Youth and Greenpeace Nordic — that drilling for oil and gas in Arctic waters would violate the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, as well as the Norwegian constitution.

Lawyer Fredrik Sejersted, representing the government, argued that the allotting of licences in the Barents Sea had been considered several times in the Storting, Norway’s supreme legislature, and was backed by a large majority.