Speakers:
- Karin Buhmann: Professor in Business and Human Rights, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen. Lead of the Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Resources and Social Responsibility (TN ASRSR).
- Berit Kristoffersen: Associate professor at UiT – the Arctic University of Norway, working at the interdisciplinary Arctic Centre for Sustainable Energy (ARC) and the Department of Social Sciences.
- Giuseppe Amatulli: Postdoctoral Researcher in the Rebuilding First Nations Governance (RFNG), Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Secretary of the Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Resources and Social Responsibility (TN ASRSR).
- Jamie Jenkins: PhD Candidate at the University of Helsinki and Instructor at the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS).
- Anna Varfolomeeva: Postdoctoral Researcher in the Biodiverse Anthropocenes research programme, University of Oulu.
Abstract:
In the Arctic, the Green Transition entails various forms of use of resources from the far north (from minerals to wind- and hydro power and therefore, implicitly, the land affected by these activities) to towards a shift to a low-carbon society. These activities are occurring across the traditional territory of the Indigenous Sámi people of the Nordic countries, facing extensive development of wind farms affecting their traditional occupations, and First Nations in Canada, where the Green Transition is understood as the possibility to exploit and export Canadian liquid natural gas (LNG). This entails the extraction and transportation of LNG across vast stretches of land, much of which is traditional territory of affected First Nations as the land they and/or their ancestors traditionally occupied and used.
The exploitation of Sámi lands and Canadian First Nation territories has given rise to numerous protests, court cases and debates on impact assessments, decision-making processes and the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). Recent court cases in Norway (Fosen) and Canada (Yahey) underscore that the involvement of affected Indigenous peoples (rightsholders) is a condition for a just transition. Whereas the jurisprudence provides important pathways to be followed, the implications for a just transition intertwined with sustainable Arctic economic development is poorly understood.
This session aims to advance knowledge of the interface between sustainable economic development in the Arctic and a just green transition which respects the rights of Indigenous peoples in land use through of presentations placing the topic into an interdisciplinary context.