Greta Thunberg joins protests against City of Munich's wind farm in Norway
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Climate protection activist Greta Thunberg is leading the charge against Munich municipal utilities company Stadtwerke München (SWM) and its wind farm in Norway to protect the ancestral lands of the indigenous Sámi people, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports. As part of the southern German city’s efforts to go completely green by 2025, SWM is investing heavily in wind energy abroad, as wind turbines face severe limitations in the surrounding state of Bavaria. The famed Swedish climate activist, however, has traveled to Oslo to support a group of Sámi that has been blocking the oil and energy ministry in the Norwegian capital for days. Protests have accompanied the wind farm since 2019, when nearby reindeer herders protested against the feared destruction of nature and grazing grounds by the roughly 150 turbines. The Sámi took their case all the way to Norway’s supreme court and won. When it comes to human rights violations, Thunberg will also demonstrate against green wind power, she told Norwegian broadcaster TV2. “We cannot misuse climate change as a cover for colonialism.”
SWM and its Norwegian partner Trønderenergi acquired a 71 percent stake in the Roan wind farm in 2021. Despite the supreme court ruling in 2021 that construction of the wind turbines in Fosen violated the rights of the indigenous people, the project has started operating.
