Greta Thunberg accuses Norway of ‘green colonialism’ over wind farm

Greta Thunberg and dozens of activists from Norway’s Sami community closed down large parts of the country’s government on Monday in a protest against what they call “green colonialism”.

Thunberg, the Swedish environmental activist, said in Oslo that it was an “international scandal” and “completely absurd” that Norway was ignoring a ruling by its Supreme Court against the building of a large onshore wind farm in the centre of the Nordic country. The unanimous ruling said the construction of the Fosen wind farm violated the rights of the indigenous Sami people by affecting where their reindeer can graze.

“The Norwegian government cannot close its eyes any more to the human rights violations that are taking place. The colonisation of Sami people must stop,” Thunberg told a small crowd.

She insisted the protest was not about opposition to wind power, but that the climate transition could not take place “at the expense of indigenous people’s rights”.

Onshore wind power is a controversial topic in both Norway and neighbouring Sweden as the wind farms are often placed on land used by the Sami for reindeer herding. There have also been clashes in Sweden over the location of mines for iron ore and other minerals.

Sami activists accuse big business and government of “green colonialism” — using the cloak of environmentally friendly projects such as wind power or minerals needed for batteries and green steel to usurp their rights as indigenous people.

The clash in Norway, which led to the closure of several ministries on Monday, also highlights the trade-offs between focusing solely on climate change and upholding protections on nature and biodiversity or indigenous rights.

Frederic Hauge, the founder of Norwegian environmental pressure group Bellona, urged politicians in 2021 to concede that parts of nature needed to be sacrificed to combat climate change, citing the need for wind and solar farms in remote areas.

The centre-left government in Oslo has repeatedly refused to detail how it would comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling. To mark 500 days since the ruling was passed, Sami activists camped out this weekend in the reception of the building of several ministries.

Norwegian police forcibly removed 13 activists at 3am on Monday, but they and others, including Thunberg, returned later in the morning and sat in front of the building, which houses the oil and energy department as well as five other ministries including finance. The government told state broadcaster NRK it had sent a text message to all employees in the six ministries advising them to work from home on Monday.

“The plan is to close it down today, and it is due to the oil and energy ministry not doing its job in a proper way. We cannot allow them to do more damage,” Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen, a Sami activist, told NRK.

Police said on Monday afternoon that they had removed a small number of demonstrators to allow access to the building housing the six ministries despite many of the protesters having bound themselves together using chains.

Norway, western Europe’s largest petroleum producer, has long faced scrutiny for the dissonance between its green goals, such as banning the sale of new petrol cars by 2025, and its pumping of oil and gas. It has struggled to start a local wind energy industry of any size due to opposition to onshore farms, and instead is focusing on offshore installations to add to its extensive hydropower resources.

Terje Aasland, oil and energy minister, called the protest “good for democracy” and said he would meet Sami leaders later this week. He said the government needed more knowledge to know how to respond to the Supreme Court ruling, which failed to give a precise sanction such as ordering the dismantling of the wind farm.