Campaigns in Norway
Here you can find information about the local efforts against Equinor's fossil fuel expansion and ways you can get involved.
Here you can find information about the local efforts against Equinor's fossil fuel expansion and ways you can get involved.
For decades, environmental campaigners, NGOs and activists in Norway have been campaigning to expose Equinor’s greenwashing and stop the company's fossil fuel expansion. Pressure is growing on Equinor and its majority owner, the Norwegian Government, to align with climate science and adhere to Norway's climate commitments. Read on for more information about important wins and how you can get involved.
Equinor is a Norwegian company. Pressure from Norwegian NGOs, environmental groups and activists are key in exposing Equinor's greenwashing and convincing the Norwegian Government to step in and stop Equinor's climate crimes.
To maintain public support in Norway, Equinor invests hugely in keeping its public image as a «broad energy company». This includes sponsoring sports, museums, universities and cultural events. The Norwegian government allows Equinor to write off 78% of advertising costs from its tax bill, which means taxpayers are covering Equinor's propaganda. Groups are calling for this advantage to be cancelled and for the company to be forced to tell the truth about its dirty activities.
There have been some important wins in recent years:
In 2016, campaigners won the long-running campaign against Equinor's (then Statoil) investments in dirty tar sands in Canada.
In 2022, a united environmental movement successfully stopped Equinor from opening the controversial Wisting Field, which would have become the northernmost field in the world. This victory built on the campaign to get Equinor to pull out of Canadian tar sands, which was won in 2016. Another historic win came in January 2024 when Greenpeace Nordic and Natur og Ungdom (Young Friends of the Earth Norway) secured a historic legal win against the Norwegian State, rendering the approvals of three oil and gas fields, including Equinor’s Breidablikk oil field, in the North Sea invalid.
In 2022, the Norwegian government published a whitepaper on state ownership («eierskapsmeldingen») which requires all state-owned companies, including Equinor, to be Paris-aligned. At Equinor’s AGM in May 2023, the Ministry of Trade submitted an addendum to a shareholder proposal by WWF-Norway and Greenpeace Norway making it clear that they’re expecting Equinor’s board to make real progress on adhering to the whitepaper. Equinor is also facing growing pressure from non-state investors and shareholders to deliver on its energy transition targets. In January 2023, 18 investors wrote to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre demanding a meeting to discuss their concerns about Equinor’s failure to take credible steps to limit warming to 1.5 degrees.
In 2024, Greenpeace Norway and Young Friends of the Earth Norway (Natur og Ungdom) made history when Oslo District Court ruled that the Norwegian Government's approval of three oil fields to be unlawful as they had not considered the global climate impacts. One of the fields was Equinor-operated oil field Breidablikk in the North Sea.
Based in Norway?
Want to find out more? Check out Sierra Club Canada Foundation's podcast series episode about the changing perception of Equinor in Norway. Listen here.