Greta Thunberg says Norway’s wind farms are an ‘unacceptable’ violation of human rights

Greta Thunberg is protesting against wind farms built on Indigenous land in Norway. 

Along with dozens of other activists, the Swedish environmental campaigner blocked entrances to the energy ministry in Oslo on Monday 27 February. 

Thunberg, a vocal advocate for the ending the world's reliance on carbon-based power, says the transition to green energy cannot come at the expense of Indigenous rights.

"Indigenous rights, human rights, must go hand-in-hand with climate protection and climate action. That can't happen at the expense of some people. Then it is not climate justice," she said in an interview with news agency Reuters.

The two wind farms in question occupy land traditionally used by Indigenous Sami reindeer herders in central Norway. Their 151 turbines can power some 100,000 Norwegian homes.

But in 2021 the country's supreme court ruled that the projects violated Sami rights under international conventions. Despite this, they remain in operation more than 16 months later. 

"They've already waited more than 500 days, I think that's more than enough time," Greta argues.

Campaigners from Nature and Youth and the Norwegian Samirs Riksforbund Nuorat joined her in blocking the entrances to the Ministry of Oil and Energy in protest.

Reindeer herders in the Nordic country say the sight and sound of the giant wind power machinery frighten their animals and disrupt age-old traditions.

"We are here to demand that the turbines must be torn down and that legal rights must be respected," says Sami singer-songwriter, actress and activist Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen.

She and a dozen other Sami demonstrators had occupied the ministry's reception area since Thursday. Police forcibly removed them around 1.30am on Monday and detained them