Enlarge image
Blockade: Greta Thunberg and Norwegian climate activists block access to the Ministry of Energy in Oslo
Photo: OLE BERG-RUSTEN / AFP
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and dozens of Sami minority activists have blocked access to the Energy Ministry in Oslo to protest against wind turbines in western Norway.
"We cannot use the so-called climate change as a cover for colonialism," said Thunberg on Monday outside the ministry's doors.
"A climate change that violates human rights is not a climate change worthy of its name," the activist told TV2.
Sámi activists are protesting against the persistence of wind farms in the Fosen region of western Norway, more than 500 days after a Supreme Court ruling against the plants.
The court had ruled that the wind farm project eroded the rights of the indigenous Sami people to practice their reindeer herding culture.
The eleven judges unanimously invalidated the permits granted for the construction of the 151 turbines.
The Saami representatives are now demanding the demolition of the wind turbines.
The Roan and Storheia wind farms are part of one of the largest onshore wind energy projects in Europe.
Stadtwerke München is one of Roan's main shareholders.
The Norwegian authorities have now ordered further reports.
"We understand that this case is a heavy burden for the Sami reindeer herders in Fosen," Minister Terje Aasland said on Monday.
Although the Supreme Court found “that the permits granted violate the legal protections of reindeer herders”, the court did not make a decision as to what should now be done with the wind turbines.
"If our fundamental rights are not respected, then I don't know which state to trust," Sami activist and musician Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen told TV2.
On Monday night, the Norwegian police had already taken dozens of activists out of the entrance hall of the Energy and Oil Ministry, which they had been occupying for days.
The Sami people number around 100,000 people living in Sweden, Finland, Norway and northwestern Russia.
Some of them live from reindeer herding.
che/AFP
