In today’s episode of The Arc, ECSP’s Claire Doyle and Angus Soderberg interview Dr. Benno Fladvad, Junior Professor for Natural Science Peace Research with a focus on Climate and Security at the University of Hamburg. Dr. Fladvad unpacks the potential environmental justice issues that arise as renewable energy deployment across the globe accelerates. Additionally, he describes the challenges of balancing the demand for rapid decarbonization with equity and justice considerations, drawing on examples from the Saami communities’ experience with green hydrogen and wind development. We also glean Dr. Fladvad’s insights into how energy projects can move beyond ineffective consultation processes toward peacebuilding and justice for marginalized communities. Select quotes from the interview are featured below.

On Norway’s approach to green and blue hydrogen

Norway is one of the frontrunners. They have huge reserves of natural gas, and they have a huge potential for renewable energy, due to the natural conditions of wind energy in the country.

There are plans and there are initiatives in Norway and the Finnmark of green hydrogen projects. These are also different with regards to their structure and size. So, I had a project that is still small. It’s in a pilot phase, and there’s an existing wind park that could be used in the future for hydrogen production. And it is run by a community-owned energy company. And there is this idea of using this green hydrogen for export and for local purposes, but there are also other plans for hydrogen projects like a big wind farm that is owned and planned by a Finnish company.

On the tensions over land use in Norway

There’s lots of pressure on grazing land, which for outsiders may seem a bit paradoxical because if you come to the Finnmark, you see lots of space, you see lots of areas. But after talking to one of the representatives of the regional reindeer herding district, it became clear to me that yes, you have…maybe if you look at the numbers, if you look at the size, this is lots of space. But after all, the pastureland is very limited.

And there’s also a huge potential for renewable energy. And I can also understand this notion of ‘why don’t we use the resources that we have in a sustainable way’ by using green energy. So, I think that there is the necessity of finding solutions to sort of coexistence of these two different perspectives of what the Finnmark not only is but also what it should be in the future.

On balancing renewable energy projects and Indigenous rights

More broadly speaking, I think it is evident that Indigenous communities, Saami communities included, are not in a very strong position. They are a minority, and they’re constantly fighting against the colonization of their lives, of their lands, and so on, and there’s absolutely a need for them to raise their concerns.

And I think that communities and the wind energy developers have an interest. So, there needs to be some sort of coexistence. It’s not about either or, but rather about how both visions and ideas of the Finnmark could coexist.

On the role of legal frameworks in protecting Indigenous communities

And the interesting case I want to mention with regards to strategies and also examples of how marginalized communities could fight against megaprojects that affect them is a case that is called the Fosen case. This case refers to wind power plants in the west of Norway, close to Trondheim, on the west coast of the Fosen peninsula. And in 2021, the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled that these two wind projects are illegitimate.

And I think what is really historic about this ruling is that it shows that as soon as there is a legal basis for marginalized communities to claim their rights—and also as soon as there is a democratic state that has the power to enforce these rights against the interest of corporations and also against the interests of the government—then there’s also a chance of effectively fighting megaprojects or wind farms.

On the Solutionary Rail initiative

One example is the Solutionary Rail Initiative. This is basically a grassroots initiative that has the overall aim and the ambition to electrify America’s rail network using community energy and energy from indigenous-led projects. One of the projects this initiative has established is to develop a rail-based transportation plan for replacing barge service on the lower Snake River in the state of Washington. So, there’s the general idea of reducing the environmental impact of inland waterway transport.

I think what is interesting here is that we also have an infrastructural project with regards to renewable energy, but which from the outset has the objective to bring different communities and different stakeholders together, like railway workers, farmers, rural and indigenous communities.

This is something very interesting in terms of the renewable energy transition with a focus on building new forms of collaboration and solidarity among different and potentially also opposing groups. The idea here is to create an infrastructure project that doesn’t just focus on the technological aspect of renewable energy, but also considers the social dynamics and the need for inclusive engagement