By M.F.

EARLIER this month the fjords of Norway’s Lofoten Islands rang out with the cries of activists. For an entire week, environmental groups and local fishermen rallied to oppose plans to drill for oil near the pristine archipelago. The demonstrations were timely: Norway is due to hold parliamentary elections in September, and the country’s two main parties?Labour and the Conservatives?are both in favour of lifting a ban on oil excavation around Lofoten. The areas surrounding the archipelago are estimated to hold 1.3bn barrels in resources, equivalent to more than $65bn at today’s prices, if all of that is found to be easily accessible oil. Norway’s oil production has nearly halved over the past 15 years, and is set to fall by another 11% by 2019. The government says Lofoten “must at some point come into play”. Yet many analysts expect the moratorium to remain. Why?

One reason is the environment. Lofoten is home to the world’s largest cold-water coral reef and mainland Europe’s biggest seabird colony. About 70% of all fish caught in the Norwegian and Barents seas use its waters as a breeding ground, which in turn provides rich feeding to a population of seals and whales. Activists also argue that opening up Lofoten to exploration is incompatible with Norway’s pledge to respect the Paris climate agreement. Full compliance with its goals would imply that two-thirds of today’s fossil-fuel reserves must be left in the ground.