Paper short abstract:

This paper delves into justice aspects of Norway's attempt to 'green' oil and gas by electrifying production. As electrification plans create a cascade of pressures on local and indigenous ways of life in Finnmark, planning, litigation and indigenous rights all come to matter for the region's future

Paper long abstract:

Whilst Norway has pledged to be part of the green transition, the mantra by leading actors in politics and industry alike is to ‘develop, not dismantle’ the Norwegian petroleum industry. To continue and expand production, the industry is ‘going green’ by electrifying production – a solution which demands a cascade of new energy infrastructure across the country.

In Finnmark, part of Sápmi and Norway’s northernmost county, electrifying the Melkøya LNG plant means onshore wind power and power grids are being planned on land currently used for indigenous reindeer herding, harvesting, tourism and outdoor recreation. Many of those opposing such plans look to a 2021 landmark Supreme court ruling from the southern part of Sápmi, which stated two wind power plants were invalid as they denied the reindeer herders the right to practice their culture. Though the government has been slow to rectify this human rights violation, the case is seen as a precedence for environmental justice in the Norwegian system. Simultaneously, recent legislative changes give more power to municipalities in the planning of wind power, which poses new questions of procedural and recognition justice in areas where the indigenous users of land are not always represented in local politics.

Tracing local resistance against new large-scale energy infrastructure in Finnmark, this paper looks at how an ethnographic approach can follow the mobilization across ways of being on the land, political avenues, protest, public hearings and litigation, which all point to other, possible climate futures in the region.