The European Court of Human Rights said Tuesday that Norway did not breach its climate obligations when it awarded Arctic oil and gas exploration licenses in 2016.

It was a blow to climate activists after the Strasbourg court last year issued a historic first ruling condemning a state for its lack of action on climate change in another case involving Switzerland.

In the most recent case, six Norwegian activists and local branches of environmental NGOs Greenpeace and Young Friends of the Earth approached the court in France’s Strasbourg after repeatedly losing in national courts.

The groups say that before awarding the licences, Norwegian “authorities did not conduct an environmental impact assessment of the potential impacts of petroleum extraction on Norway’s obligations to mitigate cl

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