INTRODUCTION
Undeniably, we have entered the era of climate crisis that affects the livelihoods of many people around the world (The United Nations, 2019). We are also witnessing how the changing climate exacerbates existing inequalities and disproportionately impacts minorities and Indigenous peoples (Minority Rights Group International, 2019). One example is the Indigenous Sámi people in Northern Europe, who are experiencing the effects of climate change firsthand.
The Sámi people are the only Indigenous people in Europe who are officially recognised as such (Environmental Justice Foundation, 2019). They live in the region of Sápmi, which spans the northernmost parts of Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden, exposing them to the Arctic region. For countless generations, they have sustainably managed their region’s ecosystem, engaging in reindeer herding, fishing, hunting, and gathering (United Nations Human Rights Council, 2016; the Environmental Justice Foundation, 2019).
However, their environment is now changing drastically due to increasingly extreme and erratic weather patterns that threaten their traditional lifestyle (Environmental Justice Foundation, 2019). For example, while the Indigenous Sámi people have around 100 various words to describe types of snow, the new snow caused by this changing climate has yet to be named (McVeigh, 2021). While this may seem harmless at first glance, in reality, this winter snow is worse in quality, meaning that the reindeer can no longer dig for their food (McVeigh, 2021). This is a grave issue, particularly when one considers that the livelihoods of many depend on reindeer herding.
For this reason, it is important to raise awareness about the challenges that Sámi people face in their daily lives. This article explores how climate change impacts the human rights of the Indigenous people of North Europe through two examples. First, it summarises and links the right to food to the study published in June 2025 about how climate change impacts the food security of Sámi people in Finland. Second, it discusses the Fosen wind power plants in Norway and how their construction has impacted the right of Indigenous people to free, prior, and informed consent.
RIGHT TO FOOD
The legal notion of the right to food in international law can be found in Article 11.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which sets out the right to an adequate standard of living and to adequate food (United Nations General Assembly, 1966, art. 11; Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, n.d.). This right has been reaffirmed by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in General Comment No. 12 (UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1999). Importantly, states are responsible for mitigating and alleviating hunger, even during natural or other disasters (Special Rapporteur on the right to food, n.d.). The term “other disasters” can potentially be interpreted to include man-made crises, such as those driven by climate change.
Although Finland ranks first in the Global Food Security Index, the Finnish Sámi Parliament has expressed concerns about the effects of climate change on food security and the government’s failure to uphold the Sámi people’s constitutional right to culturally appropriate food (Global Food Security Index, 2022; Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). This issue has been extensively explored in the recently published research article by Heli I. Kukkurainen and Ben G. J. S. Sonneveld, which will be analysed further in the following sections.
THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON FOOD SECURITY OF FINNISH SÁMI PEOPLE
According to the research article, climate change affects the food security of Sámi people across all four dimensions: availability, accessibility, utilisation, and stability (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). This is an important finding, as food security can be directly linked to the right to food. Food security usually refers to a situation in which everyone, at all times, has physical or economic access to food that is sufficient, nutritious and meets their dietary needs and preferences (World Bank Group, n.d.).
The first pillar of the food security paradigm is the physical availability of food (World Bank Group, n.d.). As most Sámi families do not buy meat from stores, instead relying on traditional methods of procuring food, the changing climate is very likely to affect their food availability and preferences in the future (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). The warmer climate is fostering an environment in which insect infestations can occur more easily. This might damage key vegetation such as mountain birch, which is critical for reindeer food. Moreover, erratic weather patterns create ice layers that block the beneath snow access to another food of reindeer, lichen. These climate-related challenges may impair reindeer health, resulting in increased mortality and reduced availability of reindeer meat. Meanwhile other necessities such as forestry, mining, or tourism, will likely cause further issues relating to limited land resources. Extreme weather events as a result of climate change will create a need to relocate herds more often. Yet, as mentioned, the options for relocation might be limited due to insufficient land resources (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025).
Accessibility to food can also be considered an essential element of the right to food as it signifies that a person has economic and physical access to food (World Bank Group, n.d.). As expected, the climate emergency has negatively impacted this pillar as well (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). For example, to ensure herd survival during increasingly harsh winters, Sámi herders have embraced a practice that is new to them, known as supplemental feeding (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). This practice involves giving additional food to reindeer during the winter months due to the unavailability of natural grazing or environmental conditions, such as deep snow or ice, that make grazing difficult (Åhman et al., 2022). However, this adaptation method comes with its disadvantages such as increased economic burden. As explained in a paper by Tim Horstkotte, Élise Lépy and Camilla Risvoll: “Economic costs of feeding consist of buying or producing all types of feed, transportation, storage, feeding, as well as an altered time commitment.” (Horstkotte, Lépy, & Risvoll, 2021). As a result, Sámi have limited access to traditional foods. Moreover, supplemental feeding comes into conflict with the traditional lifestyle of Sámi people (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). This shows how survival or adaptation strategies in response to the climate crisis can undermine indigenous ways of life.
Furthermore, due to small pensions, the retired elderly cannot afford commercialised reindeer meat (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). Although social food-sharing networks can help alleviate the situation for elders, they remain an unreliable and inconsistent means of accessing traditional food (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). Some might argue that Sámi can simply substitute reindeer meat for something else, however it is important to acknowledge that Indigenous peoples’ right to food has a distinct cultural dimension (Food and Agriculture Organization & the United Nations, Right to Food Unit, 2008). Stopping reindeer herding might cause erosion of identity in some Sámi (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). Therefore, it is important to integrate Indigenous ways of life while talking about Sámi’s right to food.
Fish is also an important part of the Sámi diet (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). Although in general fish stocks remain stable, populations of high-value species such as trout and arctic char have been declining. Therefore, the Sámi have to buy new equipment to catch lower-value species like pike and whitefish, resulting in reduced income and an increase in challenges related to food accessibility (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025).
Concerns have also been raised about the third pillar, utilisation, which is defined as making the most of the nutritional value in food (World Bank Group, n.d.; Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). For example, one Sámi research participant argued that supplementary feeding might reduce reindeer health and lower the quality of the meat (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). Moreover, some fear that climate change could contribute to the erosion of Sámi cultural identity and linguistic heritage, thus threatening the traditional knowledge related to food utilisation (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). For example, to protect the declining quantity of Salmon in the River teno, Finland and Norway have banned fishing on the river (Benke, 2024). The reason for this depleting stock is not clear, but it is possible that climate change is a key driver of it (World Wildlife Fund, 2023). This has been directly affecting Sami people for whom traditional salmon fishing is not just catching fish (Benke, 2024). Pentti Pieski, a translator and tourism entrepreneur from Utsjoki in the far north of Finland told Erika Benke:
“Traditional salmon fishing is a lot more than catching the fish. It starts with the planning: who you go with, do you need to buy or make new nets, or repair the old ones… Next you’re on the river, waiting for your turn. Then there’s the stories around the fire [told in North Sami]. But these conversations are not happening now and some of the language is fading away (Benke, 2024).
The question is whether these conversations, which carry traditional knowledge, will occur as often under climate change as they did before.
Finally, there are legitimate doubts regarding the stability of food security. This refers to the consistency and reliability of the other pillars: availability, accessibility, and utilisation (Food Security Cluster Handbook, 2023). Unlike the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s definition, for Sámi instability seems chronic, rather than temporary (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). The main reason for this is that traditional practices are increasingly threatened by multiple factors, ranging from climate change to inadequate government support in addressing its impacts (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). Moreover, since food availability and accessibility within Sámi communities are closely tied to traditional livelihoods, there are legitimate fears that the rising costs of maintaining this Indigenous way of life will make herding less financially viable over time. As a result, both availability and accessibility could be reduced (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025).
THE FINNISH GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
One of the findings of Heli I. Kukkurainen and Ben G. J. S. Sonneveld is that the national food security policy documents they analysed do not explicitly mention the Sámi people or Indigenous communities (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). This omission raises concerns, as it was established before the distinct cultural dimension of Indigenous peoples’ right to food became more widely recognised. Therefore, one might argue that without explicitly acknowledging the Sámi people, there is an increased risk that policies fail to capture the realities of Indigenous communities (Food and Agriculture Organization & the United Nations, Right to Food Unit, 2008). This critique becomes even more significant when considering that Sámi research participants criticised current government policies for lacking an understanding of conditions on the ground. As a result, there are legitimate concerns that the government has an inadequate response to the challenges faced by the Sámi (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025).
The authors also highlight some issues regarding policy documents in their study (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). For example, there are no concrete proposals on how to support reindeer herding under the climate emergency. Moreover, policies aimed at mitigating economic strain on herders seem reactive rather than preventive. Instead of building resilience and enabling Indigenous communities to continue their lifestyles under climate change, they just compensate the loss for killed reindeer. Moreover, these compensation schemes also do not work smoothly as they are often delayed and are insufficient (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025).
Lastly, the researchers also found that although climate change is acknowledged in policy documents, its accelerated impacts in Arctic regions are not specifically addressed (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). This, accompanied by the earlier finding, suggests that the non-recognition of the Sámi people and Arctic region affects Indigenous people in two key ways: firstly by overlooking their traditional food security practices, leading to the neglect of the cultural dimension of their right to food; and secondly by failing to acknowledge the intensified effects of climate change in the regions they live in (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025).
Therefore, the authors recommend addressing both issues by explicitly recognising the effects of climate change in the Arctic and by acknowledging and strengthening the traditional lifestyles and culturally specific food security systems of the Sámi people (Kukkurainen & Ben, 2025). Naturally, this would protect the right to food of the only Indigenous community in Europe.
THE RIGHT TO FREE, PRIOR AND INFORMED CONSENT (FPIC)
The right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is a fundamental human right of Indigenous peoples, recognised in several international instruments, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Amnesty International & The Saami Council, 2025). In brief, this principle gives Indigenous communities the authority to give or withhold consent for any activities carried out on their lands, which may be customarily owned, occupied, or used (Conservation International, n.d.; Institute For Human Rights and Business, 2022). Crucially, all elements of this right must be respected: consent must be given voluntarily, without coercion or manipulation. It must be sought well in advance of any proposed activity and obtained after information is given (Conservation International, n.d.; Institute For Human Rights and Business, 2022). While it is true that this right may not be directly applicable to the general effects of climate change, it could play a crucial role in adaptation or mitigation efforts, particularly in guiding policies related to the green transition and land-based climate initiatives.
THE CASE OF NORWAY: THE FOSEN WIND POWER PLANTS
The development projects in Norway, such as renewable energy initiatives, have become a challenge to the cultural and physical survival of the Sámi people (Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2025). Moreover, these infrastructures are often imposed on their ancestral lands without their consent, directly violating the right to FPIC (Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2025). One of the high-profile incidents illustrating the violation of Sámi’s human rights in Norway is the case of the Fosen Wind Power Plants.
The wind power industry gained momentum in the country around 2010 as renewable technology developed and the renewable business environment in the country became favourable (Karam, 2023). One of the projects that caused some controversy during this time was Fosen Wind Power Plants. This wind farm is located in the area that is used for reindeer grazing (Norwegian Human Rights Institution, 2023). Therefore, concerns were raised by Sámi communities for whom these lands were an important part of practising their culture (Norwegian Human Rights Institution, 2023). Yet, their appeals were ignored and developers continued constructing wind turbines, which went into operation in March 2021 (Rasmussen, 2023). Consequently, this may amount to a violation of the right to FPIC.
It must be mentioned that after receiving complaints, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called for the suspension of constructions in 2018 (Society For Threatened Peoples (STP), 2019). The complaint alleged that the project would be harmful for Sámi people and reindeer herding (Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, 2018). Yet, this was ignored by the government. More recently, a reindeer herder affected by the Fosen wind farm named Terje Haugen told the independent media organisation Grist (Rasmussen, 2023):
My mood, my state of mind, my personal life, my professional life: Everything has been affected in a negative way by wind power… I still have reindeer, but they don’t want to go near the wind turbines and have separated into smaller herds and spread along the coast. It’s a big problem that they have scattered into small flocks, it makes it very difficult to keep track of them (Rasmussen, 2023).
However, October 2021 marked an important turning point as the Supreme Court of Norway unanimously ruled that these wind farms violated Article 27 of the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which provides the right of minority groups to enjoy their own culture (United Nations (General Assembly), 1966, art. 27; McKeown-Gilmore, 2024). Nonetheless, in the beginning the government was inactive and did not take any remedial action (Amnesty International & The Saami Council, 2025). By 2024, the situation changed and the Norwegian government and sijte (Sámi social and herding traditional organisation) came into agreement. These agreements included annual financial settlements from the wind farms, a monitoring group, government-promised replacement of grazing lands, and finally, formal recognition of the sijte’s right to FPIC in case the companies seek to renew their licenses after 25 years of operation (Amnesty International & The Saami Council, 2025). Yet, as Amnesty International stated in their January report: “The replacement of winter grazing lands for South Fosen and North Fosen sijtes have still not been identified, therefore, the remedial action is not yet complete” (Amnesty International & The Saami Council, 2025).
One lesson which we can learn from this case is that if the government had initially engaged with the Indigenous people’s right to FPIC, the problems and further human rights violations which they continue to face today might not have taken place. Moreover, it is essential to remember that Indigenous people might indeed be firsthand victims of climate change, particularly in relation to their right to food. Therefore, it is not correct to assume that Sami people are against a greener future and the shift towards renewable energy. The point, rather, is that these changes should not occur without their engagement nor should they result in violations of their human rights. As described by Christina Henriksen, the president of the Saami Council, an NGO promoting the rights of the Sámi, to Novara Media:
We have no more land to give and we cannot alone take responsibility to provide the world with so-called green solutions. We, too, want a greener future, but the solution is not to take away all land and destroy our livelihoods and our culture (Novara Media, 2020).
CONCLUSION
The experiences of the Sámi communities in Finland and Norway reveal how the climate crisis is reshaping the world we live in. From its physical effects to mitigation and adaptation efforts, it is transforming the livelihoods of the Sámi, threatening their cultural heritage. The two cases described above are just the tip of the iceberg, considering that climate change can also affect other human rights not discussed in this article.
Furthermore, it seems that governments appear unprepared to govern effectively in this new reality where the changing climate threatens livelihoods. However, the issues discussed in this article illustrate the importance of recognising that climate justice cannot be achieved without Indigenous justice. In policy adaptation strategies, concrete, tailored measures to protect their livelihoods should be developed. Meanwhile, in mitigation and adaptation efforts, governments should engage actively with Indigenous people and grant them the right to give or withhold consent.
In conclusion, the governments and citizens should not forget how disproportionately climate change affects minorities and try to raise awareness about and engage with the challenges Indigenous communities face today due to climate change.
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