Greta Thunberg joined protesters blocking access to Norway’s energy ministry on Monday - in protest against the “unacceptable” placement of wind farms.
The 20-year-old environmental campaigner and dozens of other activists staged the sit-in against turbines built on land traditionally used by indigenous Sami reindeer herders.
Norway’s supreme court in 2021 ruled that two wind farms built in central Norway violated Sami rights under international conventions, but more than 16 months later the turbines remain in operation.
“I am here to support the struggle for human rights and indigenous rights,” Ms Thunberg told news agency Reuters while sitting outside the ministry’s main entrance with other demonstrators.
“The Norwegian state is violating human rights and that is completely unacceptable and we need to stand in solidarity in this struggle,” she said.
Reindeer herders in the Nordic country say the sight and sound of the giant wind power machinery frighten their animals and disrupt age-old traditions.
They are demanding that the turbines be torn down.
The government has said the ultimate fate of the wind farms is a complex legal and political quandary despite the supreme court ruling and is hoping to find a compromise.
