"The climate and emissions impact of burning (the oil and gas from the fields) has not been sufficiently studied or evaluated," the court said, ruling in favour of the Scandinavian branch of Greenpeace and the environmental group Nature and Youth.

The two groups filed the case in 2023 against the permits for the Tyrving, Breidablikk and Yggdrasil offshore fields, saying they had been approved before environmental impact studies had been carried out.

A lower court had already ruled in their favour in January 2024, prompting an appeal by the Norwegian energy ministry, which argued there were no grounds to halt the projects.

Sigrid Hoddevik Losnegard, president of Nature and Youth, called the ruling "a victory for us and for our future".

"The fight for the climate is really taken seriously," she said in a statement. "Now we expect political leaders to follow this decision and put an end to these oil fields once and for all."

Frode Pleym, the head of Greenpeace Norway, also welcomed the ruling.

"Looking at recent court decisions on climate, they are not just about the global nature of the crisis but also about what states need to do," he said in a statement.

"The need for governments to protect their citizens from climate harm has now become far too obvious to ignore, and thankfully, judges around the world are realising this," he said.

- Court battles -

The issue of climate change is increasingly being litigated in the courts.

In late October, the European Court of Human Rights said Norway had not breached its climate obligations when it awarded the Arctic oil and gas exploration licenses in 2016.

But in 2024, the EHCR issued a ruling condemning Switzerland for a lack of action on climate change, the first such ruling against a state.

In July 2025, the International Court of Justice ruled that climate change was an "urgent and existential threat" and that countries had a legal duty under international law to prevent harm from their planet-warming pollution.

In what was an advisory opinion -- not legally binding but carrying political and legal weight -- the Hague-based ICJ said countries breaching their climate obligations were committing a "wrongful act".

Many climate activists criticise Norway, the main producer of oil and gas in Western Europe, saying it is profiting from their sales even though fossil fuel use is contributing to global warming.