In Norway, the indigenous Sami wind community fights in court against a planned wind farm. Øyfjellet is one of the largest onshore renewable energy projects that will help Norway become independent from the fossil fuels that make the country rich.
A Norwegian court had already given the green light for the wind farm in September 2020, but the High Commissioner appealed. Livestock farmers say the construction is blocking the migration route of reindeer.
It is not the Sami who have contributed the most to climate change, yet we bear the brunt. This is not climate justice, it is climate injustice
Said Gunn Brett Ritter, Chairman of the Sami Council.
Photo: Barry Lewis / Getty Images Hungary
Tony Christian Teller, Foreign Minister at the Norwegian Ministry of Energy and the company that builds the wind farm, expressed his hope that the reindeer and wind farms can live together. However, practical experience has shown that reindeer avoid wind turbines from afar.
This is a paradox. We are grinding between the effects of climate change and the effects of green energy
– mundta Gunn-Britt Retter.
