Norway has paused its plans to mine the sea bed at the bottom of the Arctic, following demands from a small environmentalist political party that the government scrap its first licensing round. “We are stopping plans to open mining on the sea bed,” Kristi Bergstoe, leader of the SV party, says. The party sits outside the governing coalition, but pledged to back the government’s budget if it halts the roll-out of deep sea mining permits, which were due to be offered in the first half of 2025.