A recent climate initiative by the Norwegian government is facing opposition from the Saami Indigenous people, whose territories are directly affected. The proposed 54-kilometer power line would be built by the state-owned energy company Equinor in the northernmost portion of the country, well above the Arctic Circle. The Saami believe their rights to cultural preservation and a healthy environment under international and domestic law have been violated because the power line may affect traditional reindeer herding. At least one group of herders is planning to take legal action.
Herding is a key practice among the Saami: It is central to their traditions and their livelihoods. Reindeer are a major source of meat for Saami, and they use antlers for traditional craft-making and fur for clothing. The power line is likely to impact reindeer herding because the animals avoid spaces with extensive infrastructure. This project could disturb the reindeer’s migration routes, as earlier projects have. Although their population has been spliced by national borders, the contemporary Saami consider themselves one group. They are semi-nomadic, shifting locations depending on the season and on the state of pasture for their herds.
There is a history of imbalanced power dynamics between the Saami and the Norwegian government, and their relationship has been strained by government construction in Indigenous lands. For example, the 1970s Alta conflict involved a Norwegian initiative to build a dam in the Alta River that had the potential to flood a Saami village. In 2010, Norway built a wind farm in Saami land, affecting grazing spots for reindeer and disrupting the maintenance of Saami cultural practices. Wind farms, due to the noise caused during construction and the throwing of ice from windmill blades during operation, can interfere significantly with grazing. In March 2024, the Norwegian government compensated the Saami with a settlement of $473,000 dedicated to cultural preservation, only three years after the Norwegian Supreme Court declared the wind farm permissions invalid.
The proposed Equinor power line is the most recent point of contention between the Saami and the Norwegian government. The power line is meant to help Norway reach its climate goal of reducing its overall carbon dioxide emissions by 55% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. It would do so by allowing the Hammerfest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production plant, the biggest LNG production plant in Western Europe, to operate its turbines using renewable energy rather than by burning gas. The exports of natural gas from this plant could generate enough power to supply 6.5 million homes. In addition, the proposed power line initiative aims to bring other benefits to the country, through the creation of new jobs.
The precedent of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is pertinent to the violations caused by projects built on Indigenous lands. This concept formed part of the U.N. International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169, ratified in 1989, which ensures that all entities, including governments and international organizations, consult Indigenous groups when they would like to pursue activities in their lands.
The Norwegian government claimed to have followed FPIC through its initiatives, but this may not have been the case in practice. Norway was one of the first nations to ratify ILO 169, which sets out a definition of FPIC. However, FPIC was not fully implemented in some cases. For example, after the implementation of the Consultation Act in June 2021, the Norwegian Court declared in October 2021 that the Norwegian government did not follow FPIC when establishing power plants in the Fosen peninsula.
Maria Antonia Tigre, a legal scholar and head of Global Climate Litigation at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said, “To address these shortcomings [of the FPIC claims], it is essential to strengthen the enforceability of FPIC through binding international agreements and to ensure its implementation in domestic legal frameworks.”
Norwegian deputy energy minister Elisabeth Saether stated last year that the power line construction complies with another international agreement, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights, which says that any activity conducted should not violate an Indigenous peoples’ practice of their culture. She argued that the impact of the powerline is “not such a big hindrance that herders will be unable to practice their culture.”
However, the power plant is situated in an area that reindeer use. Reindeer may avoid the area, affecting their migratory movements and creating risk if the herds might need to pass close to the sizable glaciers in this part of the Finnmark Province in Norway, where recent melt has increased streamflow and caused floods. These conditions make the soil more marshy and place reindeer in danger of hoof disease, which can be fatal.
Tero Mustonen, a Finnish researcher focusing on the Saami people, reaffirms that this population is an underdog when it comes to treaty-making. “We have not really seen a land use situation or a ‘deal’ where the Saami communities or peoples would have been able to realize their full FPIC in most cases, and yet the land use pressures in Sápmi—mining, wind power build-up, tourism, and hydrogen economy—grow.”
The Saami people are already disproportionately affected by climate change. The Arctic is warming approximately twice as fast as the rest of the world. The Saami, in turn, face unpredictable snow conditions. Instead of a consistent pattern of snowfall, rainfall increasingly occurs in the Sápmi region in the winter. The rain that falls on the snow often forms a layer of ice. Reindeer are unable to break this layer of ice to reach lichen, one of their main sources of food. This directly affects the greatest source of nourishment and cultural preservation for the Saami people.
As governments around the world seek to follow climate initiatives and reduce carbon emissions at all costs, the native communities who live in the affected lands are often not consulted. Even when a deal is reached, the demands of Indigenous communities are infrequently met. As Tigre said, “This issue is not only about justice for Indigenous communities but also about preserving critical ecosystems and cultural heritage in the face of accelerating climate change.”
As of April 2025, the construction of the power line in Norway remains suspended due to legal impasses. The Saami Parliament Council has sought authorization to pursue legal action against the electrification project, citing concerns over its impact on reindeer herding and Sámi cultural practices. The Norwegian government has not yet issued a final ruling, leaving the project’s future uncertain.
While the project aims to reduce carbon emissions by supplying renewable energy to the Hammerfest LNG plant, it also poses significant risks to the traditional livelihoods of the Saami. The outcome of this case may set a precedent for how nations balance climate initiatives with the rights of Indigenous communities.
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