Environmental law organization, ClientEarth has filed a complaint to Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court to stop the construction of a 510 kilometre-long section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Swedish waters.
The environmental lawyers argue that the construction documents are incomplete and inaccurate. They also do not consider the impact the pipeline will have on marine wildlife in the Baltic Sea.
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The Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation approved the construction of the pipeline on 7 June 2018. Gazprom owns it, and it will run through the Swedish exclusive economic zone. This is an area of coastal water to which Sweden has exclusive rights for fishing, drilling and other economic activities.
Constructing the pipeline will entail detonating ammunition from the Second World War, currently sitting on the seafloor. Underwater detonations can cause serious harm to protected marine mammals.
In addition, the organization said that the harbour porpoise is strictly protected as there are only 450 left in the Baltic Sea. Thus, negative impacts on even one of them will affect all of the population, experts of the Institute of Oceanography of Gdansk informed.
In May, ClientEarth submitted a similar complaint in Finland to stop the construction of the pipeline running through Finnish territorial waters.
In total, the pipeline along the Baltic seabed will be approximately 1,200km long, putting the flora and fauna of the entire maritime area in danger, the company concluded.
