Resisting Green Colonialism: Sámi Legal Mobilisation and the Struggle for a Just Energy Transition

Mattia Frasca, Generation Climate Europe (Italy)

As global demand for critical minerals and renewable energy accelerates, Indigenous territories are increasingly targeted for extractive projects under the banner of sustainability. This paper examines how Sámi communities in Norway and Finland are using legal mobilisation to resist wind energy and mineral exploration developments that threaten cultural survival and territorial rights. Through a comparative analysis of three emblematic cases - the Fosen and Kalvvatnan wind farms in Norway, and the Lätäs 1 mineral exploration project in Finland - it explores how legal strategies grounded in international norms, such as the ICCPR, UNDRIP, and ILO 169, intersect with national governance structures and energy priorities. Framing these struggles through the lens of green colonialism and legal pluralism, the paper reveals how climate action can reproduce extractive power dynamics when Indigenous consent and sovereignty are sidelined. It argues that Sámi resistance challenges the normative foundations of the green transition and reclaims law as a site of decolonial agency, offering critical insights for more just, rights-based approaches to climate and energy governance.