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Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses how the transition to green energy can play out as green colonialism in the Norwegian part of Sápmi. It looks at moral premises, values, and knowledge hierarchies that have the power to enable Indigenous dispossession in the name of a green transition.

Paper long abstract:

Industrial projects connected to green energy and the extraction of raw materials needed for a "green shift" increasingly diminish the quality and size of reindeer pastures throughout Sápmi (Northern Scandinavia). In recent political and academic debates, this has been described as "green colonialism", a term first coined by former president of the Sámi parliament in Norway, Aili Keskitalo.

Prior to the start of any industrial project on Sámi reindeer herding lands in Norway, its impacts, and the possibility of co-existence between reindeer herding and industry needs to be evaluated in an environmental impact assessment (EIA). EIAs are the base for marine and land-use planning decision. Reindeer herders, however, experience that the cumulative impacts of human activities and fragmentation of pasture by far exceed what is usually anticipated in environmental impact assessments.

This paper explores how narratives of a green shift and the common good do not align with Sámi experiences of a new (green) colonialism in Norway. It does so by focusing on the case of a planned quartz mine at Násásvarre, a mountain at the border between Nordland, Norway and Västerbotten, Sweden that is used for cross-boundary Sámi reindeer herding.