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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to this bonus episode of The Black Thread,

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Speaker 1: made possible thanks to the Heinrich Berlerstiftung as part of

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Speaker 1: their Climate Disinformation Media Fellowship for twenty twenty five. The

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Speaker 1: Black Thread is a podcast series unraveling Norway's complex relationship

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Speaker 1: with prosperity, identity, and responsibility in a warming world. And

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Speaker 1: I'm Dickham, a climate communications expert based in Oslo, the

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Speaker 1: Norwegian capital, tracing the Black Thread Oil through Norway's society

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Speaker 1: and culture. Throughout this series, we've explored how deeply oil

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Speaker 1: is woven into the fabric of Norwegian life. We've heard

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Speaker 1: experts describe the reach of fossil fuel influence, and industry

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Speaker 1: insiders explain the logic behind the narratives that they promote,

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Speaker 1: narratives repeated anywhere from school classrooms to the Norwegian Parliament.

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Speaker 1: And we've discovered how more and more people are beginning

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Speaker 1: to push back. But all these insights have considered Norway

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Speaker 1: and Norwegians at large. We've never zoomed in on any

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Speaker 1: single specific case of place or space in detail. In

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Speaker 1: this episode, though, we'll do exactly that, exploring a key

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Speaker 1: conflict site where the development of Norway's net zero transformation

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Speaker 1: intersects with its fossil fuel industry, indigenous rights, the youth

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Speaker 1: climate movement, and even critique from the United Nations. It's

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Speaker 1: a case that was raised in several of the interviews

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Speaker 1: I conducted for the rest of this series, and which

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Speaker 1: has featured prominently in Norwegian news over recent months, but

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Speaker 1: which has received little international media attention. It's a case

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Speaker 1: that distills Norway's climate paradox perfectly. This is an episode.

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Speaker 2: About melchg melgher meltgher.

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Speaker 1: Melke is a small island just off the coast of

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Speaker 1: the city of Hammerfest in the Finnmark region of northern Norway.

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Speaker 1: You might remember Hammerfest from episode two, when journalist, author

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Speaker 1: and project leader at the Norwegian Climate Foundation Anakhar and

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Speaker 1: Souther described the city's transformation in the.

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Speaker 3: North hum Midfest.

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Speaker 4: It was an cd that was sort of almost dead,

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Speaker 4: and then it grew and prospered, and the local politicians

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Speaker 4: love oil and gas there.

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Speaker 1: Melger is central to that story. The entire island, previously

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Speaker 1: home to seasonal fishing, cabins and farmland, is now dominated

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Speaker 1: by a liquefied natural gas processing facility operated by Equinor.

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Speaker 1: The facility has been receiving gas via pipeline from the

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Speaker 1: snow White field in the Barren Sea since two thousand

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Speaker 1: and seven. It processes and compresses the gas, which is

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Speaker 1: then exported by ship to destinations all over the world. Today,

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Speaker 1: the future of that facility and how it's powered has

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Speaker 1: become one of the most debated energy and climate issues

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Speaker 1: in Norway. To understand more about this case and why

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Speaker 1: it's become so contested, I sat down with Ery Melhus,

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Speaker 1: deputy leader of naturd or Undom, Norway's largest youth environmental group,

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Speaker 1: to learn more what.

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Speaker 5: Special with Melger is. It's one of the biggest pluting

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Speaker 5: in Norway. It's responsible for around two percent of the

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Speaker 5: total emissions in Norway, which makes it important for the

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Speaker 5: politicians to do something about it to make sure that

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Speaker 5: we will be able to reach our climate goals. The

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Speaker 5: government wants to electrify the facility and they're going to

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Speaker 5: build several high voltage power lines across the entire film

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Speaker 5: Mark and this will have huge consequences. It's all located

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Speaker 5: in subme and most of the facilities will be in

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Speaker 5: reindeer herding eras so in addition to destroying the Samilan,

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Speaker 5: it's also just greenw washing politics because the gas that

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Speaker 5: they normally now used to run the gas facility will

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Speaker 5: be just sold to another country and used there instead.

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Speaker 5: There will not be any global effects on this project,

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Speaker 5: but it will look really good on an Norwegian climate county.

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Speaker 1: So Arie raises two key issues. First, they claim that

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Speaker 1: electrification will not reduce the overall emissions associated with the plant,

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Speaker 1: and second that the electrification itself requires the construction of

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Speaker 1: infrastructure that will greatly impact indigenous practices. Let's look at

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Speaker 1: each of these issues in turn, Starting with the emissions.

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Speaker 1: The facility on Melkore is currently powered by a gas

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Speaker 1: fired power plant and, according to the Norwegian Environment Agency,

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Speaker 1: is Norway's third most emitting location, releasing around eight hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty thousand tons of carbon dioxide into the air

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Speaker 1: each year. Its planned electrification is pitched as the single

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Speaker 1: largest emissions reduction measure taken by a Norwegian government so far. However,

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Speaker 1: Airy describes the proposed electrification of the gas plant as

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Speaker 1: green washing, But what does that actually mean. According to

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Speaker 1: the United Nations, greenwashing is the act of misleading the

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Speaker 1: public about how environmentally friendly a product really is taking

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Speaker 1: its entire life cycle into account. For example, as we

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Speaker 1: discre in previous episodes, though Norwegian oil and gas may

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Speaker 1: at present have lower production emissions compared to other oil

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Speaker 1: and gas products, that does not make it quote unquote

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Speaker 1: climate friendly. Since ninety seven percent of the planet warming

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Speaker 1: impact happens when the product is burned during what's called

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Speaker 1: the use phase of its life cycle, the net effect

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Speaker 1: is absolutely not climate friendly, so no credible claim to

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Speaker 1: the contrary can be made. Calling Norwegian oil and gas

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Speaker 1: climate friendly then would be greenwashing, regardless of whether you

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Speaker 1: might be an industry spokesperson, a politician, or indeed a

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Speaker 1: representative of Norway's leading climate research center. Has happened earlier

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Speaker 1: this year. For critics of the Medcoy plan, this perspective matters.

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Speaker 1: They argue that if the gas that's currently burned on

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Speaker 1: site to power the facility is instead just exported and

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Speaker 1: burned elsewhere, then the global climate effect basically remains the same.

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Speaker 1: So although extrification might look good in noise domestic emissions accounting,

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Speaker 1: since it does little to reduce the overall climate impact

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Speaker 1: of the project. They claim that promoting the electrification of

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Speaker 1: the plant as a win for the climate could be

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Speaker 1: considered greenwashing. Climate change, as the saying goes, knows no

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Speaker 1: national borders.

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Speaker 4: That has been Norway's defense all the time that yes,

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Speaker 4: we try to reduce our territorial emissions, but whatever happens

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Speaker 4: to the oil and gas of the export, that's not

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Speaker 4: our responsibility.

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Speaker 3: That defense is no longer tenable.

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Speaker 4: The International Court of Justice, in its twenty third of

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Speaker 4: July decision this summer, has.

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Speaker 3: Said that those emissions must also be assessed.

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Speaker 1: That's Yenni Sunvic, a climate and human rights lawyer who

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Speaker 1: recently represented Greenpeace and natudro Ungdam in several legal challenges

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Speaker 1: against the Norwegian state, including a major Arctic drilling case,

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Speaker 1: where she helped secure a landmark ruling requiring the assessment

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Speaker 1: of the full climate harm from associated emissions when open

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Speaker 1: new areas for oil and gas drilling. Though Yenni's work

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Speaker 1: is not associated with Melco, this outcome may have implications

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Speaker 1: for the case.

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Speaker 4: The European Court of Human Rights held that it is

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Speaker 4: a human rights obligation on the state to assess climate

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Speaker 4: harm from a licensing drilling because climate does have an

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Speaker 4: increased effect on mortality and morbidity. The right to life

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Speaker 4: and the right to private life offers protection against that

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Speaker 4: kind of climate harm, and therefore there are obligations on

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Speaker 4: the state to protect its citizens against those kind of impacts,

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Speaker 4: and that assessment must be done with regard to international

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Speaker 4: and national climate targets, cumulative emissions and the impact to

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Speaker 4: life and health, and be based on best available science.

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Speaker 1: As you can hear, these are major cases International Court

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Speaker 1: of Justice, European Court of Human Rights against the Norwegian

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Speaker 1: state and so far winning. But what do these judgments

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Speaker 1: mean for all the talking points we heard in previous

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Speaker 1: episodes about Norwegian oil and gas being aligned with the

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Speaker 1: aims of the Paris Agreement, ideas that very much rest

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Speaker 1: on the hypothetical substitution of all other oil and gas

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Speaker 1: products for the lower production emission Norwegian alternative, essentially the

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Speaker 1: arguments that are used to justify the electrification of the

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Speaker 1: gas plant on Melcare. Jenny explained that this rhetoric has

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Speaker 1: been under fire in the courts.

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Speaker 4: What's been called out is the assumption that if you

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Speaker 4: don't drill these fields in the North Sea that global

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Speaker 4: emissions would rise. That the argument that this oil from

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Speaker 4: these fields will substitute and lead to smaller emissions overall.

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Speaker 4: The problem with that assumption, which I think is very

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Speaker 4: wildly shared in Norway. That's what we've been exposed to

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Speaker 4: now for years, through commercials, through media, through all kinds

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Speaker 4: of channels, and it's a very comforting it's a very

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Speaker 4: soothing conclusion. I mean, it would be lovely if that

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Speaker 4: was the case. But it's always the problem with things

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Speaker 4: that are a little too comfortable is that they may

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Speaker 4: not be true. Recent studies show that that assumption has

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Speaker 4: a less than one to two percent probability of being true.

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Speaker 4: What we've been able to show in these proceedings, like

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Speaker 4: one hasn't been in public debate, is to scrutinize the assumptions.

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Speaker 4: There are a lot of myths out there that are

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Speaker 4: allowed to just fly, but if you really test them,

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Speaker 4: that's just nothing.

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Speaker 1: To them any points to a now infamous report produced

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Speaker 1: by consultancy firm produced stud Energy that forms the basis

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Speaker 1: of much of this prevalent narrative about Norwegian fossil fuels

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Speaker 1: being a net benefit for the climate if they substitute

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Speaker 1: other products in the courts. She explains, when both sides

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Speaker 1: are given equal time to present the evidence based on

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Speaker 1: the best available science, with all the strategic communication cast aside,

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Speaker 1: the truth becomes too clear to ignore.

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Speaker 4: You have to assess the emissions, all emissions embedded in

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Speaker 4: the reserve, and you have to assess the effect of

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Speaker 4: those emissions on all climate impacts. That best available science

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Speaker 4: allow you to quantify how many people will die, how

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Speaker 4: many square kilometers of sea ice in the Arctic will

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Speaker 4: be melted as a result of these emissions, how many

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Speaker 4: square kilometers of snow cover will be reduced as a

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Speaker 4: result of these emissions, how much will sea level rise,

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Speaker 4: how many children born in various birth cohorts will be

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Speaker 4: exposed to extreme weather events that wouldn't have occurred without

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Speaker 4: these emissions. So those kind of impacts that we now

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Speaker 4: can quantify because there are direct relationships between the amount

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Speaker 4: of CO two and temperature increase, and because there is

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Speaker 4: then a direct relationship between temperature increase and a number

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Speaker 4: of physical climate impacts, you can quantify those climate impacts.

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Speaker 3: The ways in which we can.

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Speaker 4: Show evidence of the harm has up till now been challenging,

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Speaker 4: But now with attribution science, you can simply quantify the

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Speaker 4: harmful effects.

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Speaker 3: And that's really all these cases are about.

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Speaker 1: Jenny suggests that attribution science, which is able to quantify

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Speaker 1: the impacts of a climate shaped by human activity, offers

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Speaker 1: a new level of visibility on the consequences of fossil

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Speaker 1: fuel extraction, and that there is now a precedent for

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Speaker 1: the courts to consider such insights, including downstream or exported emissions.

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Speaker 1: The plan to electrify the gas plant on Medco is

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Speaker 1: expected to add twenty years to the lifespan of the facility,

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Speaker 1: along with its processing and the export of gas. A

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Speaker 1: report from research and advocacy organization Oil Change International calls

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Speaker 1: the move a climate bomb. It quotes the government's own

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Speaker 1: analysis that estimates that burning the additional gas produced over

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Speaker 1: this extended lifetime will emit over one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: million tons of carbon dioxide, a number that dwarfs the

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Speaker 1: touted emissions reductions of eight hundred and fifty thousand tons

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Speaker 1: per year from electrifying the plant. These emissions would seem

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Speaker 1: to dash any claims that the electrification of the plant

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Speaker 1: is a climate measure, which brings us to an important question.

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Speaker 1: Earlier in the series, we heard Norwegian Minister of Finance

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Speaker 1: Jence Stoltenberg quoted as saying that Norway hasn't spent oil

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Speaker 1: money since two thousand and one, instead spending revenues from

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Speaker 1: investments made through its sovereign Wealth Fund, and Anakhar And Sather,

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Speaker 1: project leader at the Norwegian Climate Foundation, has pointed to

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Speaker 1: research suggesting that this wealth is set to grow at

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Speaker 1: more or less the same pace even without new oil

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Speaker 1: and gas resources. So if the country doesn't need more

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Speaker 1: fossil fuel production to stay wealthy, and if the climate

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Speaker 1: costs of extending it are increasingly visible, including in court

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Speaker 1: where the true cost of Noruay's actions are being revealed,

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Speaker 1: quantified and judged, then the question begs who actually benefits

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Speaker 1: from electrifying melca Very Melhu's from Natura Undom shares their

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Speaker 1: thoughts on.

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Speaker 5: This, the government and the industry. They are presenting it

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Speaker 5: at something we need, and when they present it, they

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Speaker 5: all the time avoid to mention the things that makes

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Speaker 5: it unpopular, like how the power prices in the era

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Speaker 5: they will be raised in the next couple of years

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Speaker 5: because of the cost from actually making the power lines.

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Speaker 5: That bill will go to the people who lives there

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Speaker 5: and not for the ones who actually take the decisions.

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Speaker 5: Most of the nature is almost untouched and almost none

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Speaker 5: of the population in the north want these projects because

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Speaker 5: it will destroy the eras and the nature and the land,

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Speaker 5: and they won't be able to take their children's to

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Speaker 5: the same mountains as they used to go to when

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Speaker 5: they were children. And not just the Sami people but

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Speaker 5: also the origions. It's a part of their identity, and

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Speaker 5: I also avoid talking about the possible human rights violation.

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Speaker 5: They have to make sure that the green transition doesn't

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Speaker 5: go on the expense of the nature and the indigenous lands.

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Speaker 5: We cannot solve the climate crisis with destroying the nature.

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Speaker 1: Airy believes that electrifying Melcore benefits oil companies and politicians,

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Speaker 1: who they claim want Norway to remain a major fossil

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Speaker 1: fuel nation. By reducing domestic emissions, Airy suggests that Norway

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Speaker 1: can avoid the kinds of EU pollution penalties we heard

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Speaker 1: about earlier in the series and keep the gas industry

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Speaker 1: running for years longer than it otherwise might, all while

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Speaker 1: continuing to export fossil fuels. The gas from Melkoa will

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Speaker 1: go primarily to Europe, where as we've heard previously, though

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Speaker 1: it may fill a gap created by the decision not

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Speaker 1: to import Russian gas. Experts believe such a move serves

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Speaker 1: to prolong Europe's reliance on fossil fuels rather than encouraging

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Speaker 1: it to build renewables. But Airy raised another important point

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Speaker 1: of contention that the wind farmer planned to electrify. The

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Speaker 1: facility would be built on Sami land, interfering with ancient

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Speaker 1: reindeer herding practices. As we heard in an earlier episode,

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Speaker 1: those lands carry significant cultural and spiritual importance for Sami communities.

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Speaker 1: An Oil Change International report called the proposed electrification of

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Speaker 1: Melkoya quote another slap in the face for Sami rights.

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Speaker 1: But what insight can a Sami perspective bring to this case?

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Speaker 1: I spoke to Bayaska Nilas, parliamentary leader of the Norwegian

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Speaker 1: Sami Association to learn more.

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Speaker 2: With the Malke decision and electrification, we are looking at

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Speaker 2: twelve to thirty new record sized wind power plantations in

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Speaker 2: an area that is already used for reindeer husbandry, and

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Speaker 2: some of the districts are already heavily affected by other

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Speaker 2: industries that are already built. So this comes on top

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Speaker 2: of that. So we are looking ahead now a few

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Speaker 2: years of really big fights on top of the ones

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Speaker 2: we already have. The government never consulted with any one

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Speaker 2: when it came to decision of electrifying the gas plantation.

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Speaker 2: Last year, for the first time in history, the Sami

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Speaker 2: Parliament decided to sue the Norwegian government regarding electrification of Melkya.

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Speaker 1: Biasca describes the Melka case as yet another in a

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Speaker 1: long line of land and resource grabs carried out by

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Speaker 1: the Norwegian government without due process.

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Speaker 2: In every matter that regards the Sami people, we should

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Speaker 2: have a say and also we should have free, prior

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Speaker 2: and informed consent. It means that every party should be

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Speaker 2: fully informed about the matters, Every party should be fully involved,

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Speaker 2: every party should be at the table and then give

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Speaker 2: an informed consent or no. That process is very often

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Speaker 2: ignored and they just jump straight to conclusion. So on

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Speaker 2: Norway as a human rights defender is very false. The

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Speaker 2: body in Yuen that surveils indigenous people's rights recently had

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Speaker 2: a report on Norway and nation report that very clearly

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Speaker 2: states how Norway is violating right and especially free prior

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Speaker 2: and inform consent. And we also have a system in

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Speaker 2: Norway where it's basically a built first, ask later policy.

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Speaker 1: Biasca describes cases where mining was started or wind turbines

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Speaker 1: were constructed, all without permission. After hearing these insights, it's

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Speaker 1: clear that the Melco debate isn't just about emissions or electricity.

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Speaker 1: It's also about people's lives, the people whose land is affected,

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Speaker 1: whose traditions are disrupted, and whose voices don't always make

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Speaker 1: it into the decision making process. And there's another group

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Speaker 1: whose experience often gets overlooked in stories like this too,

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Speaker 1: the workers at the plant itself. If you've been following

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Speaker 1: this series, you'll remember how often the idea of the

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Speaker 1: oil worker comes up. This hero of Norway's modern success

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Speaker 1: story the backbone of the national narrative. But on Melkoa,

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Speaker 1: that picture becomes a bit more complicated because, alongside the

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Speaker 1: political debate and the land use fight, Melcoa has also

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Speaker 1: been the center of repeated concerns about worker safety and

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Speaker 1: equinor As the operator of the plant has faced repeated

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Speaker 1: criticism for issues on site and the treatment of staff

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Speaker 1: employed at the facility. One case involved a fall from

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Speaker 1: height that left a worker with a broken leg. According

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Speaker 1: to reporting of the case, staff had already raised concerns

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Speaker 1: about the condition of the safety equipment, but the problems

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Speaker 1: hadn't been fixed before the accident happened, and this wasn't

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Speaker 1: an isolated incident. Over the summer, the Norwegian newspaper Wege

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Speaker 1: conducted more than forty interviews with people connected to the facility.

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Speaker 1: Workers described symptoms they believed were linked to gas exposure,

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Speaker 1: nose bleeds, memory problems, breathing difficulties, even vomiting yellow foam.

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Speaker 1: In one incident, thirteen people were sent to the emergency room.

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Speaker 1: Several said they struggled to get proper follow up afterwards,

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Speaker 1: with others saying they'd been told to keep working even

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Speaker 1: when alarms signaled a possible gas leak. Others still said

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Speaker 1: they felt pressure not to speak up at all, and

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Speaker 1: there have been multiple reports of staff being dismissed for

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Speaker 1: speaking out. Stories that conflict significantly with Equinor's reputation as

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Speaker 1: a top employer and a champion of responsible business operations.

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Speaker 1: It's a very different picture from the one we often

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Speaker 1: hear about Norway's oil and gas sector, the safe, stable,

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Speaker 1: well regulated workplace, and it complicates the idea repeated so

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Speaker 1: often in Norwegian public life that the industry looks out

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Speaker 1: for the best interests of Norway and its people. In

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Speaker 1: many ways, it seems that Melkoye represents the unraveling of

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Speaker 1: the black thread, a case where the alleged greenwashing is

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Speaker 1: clearer to see, where the realities of working conditions and

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Speaker 1: the treatment of oil and gas workers comes into sharp

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Speaker 1: relief with those of the national narrative, and where the

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Speaker 1: Norwegian government is taking decisions that choose oil and gas

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Speaker 1: over nature and colonial oppression over justice. All this reveals

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Speaker 1: that the electrification of Melkoya is not a green milestone.

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Speaker 1: It exposes the contradiction in Norway's global image quite neatly,

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Speaker 1: a nation celebrated for human rights and climate leadership, yet

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Speaker 1: here revealing a willingness to prioritize wealth and energy exports

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Speaker 1: over ecological and social responsibility. With all this in mind,

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Speaker 1: I asked Dery Melhus from naturo Ungdam what they would

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Speaker 1: say to Norway's politicians if they had the chance.

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Speaker 5: First of all, it's important for them to take clim detection.

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Speaker 5: They do have a big responsibility for my generation and

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Speaker 5: every generation coming after. They have a huge responsibility to

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Speaker 5: take Norway in the right direction and in a greener direction.

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Speaker 5: And I think it's important for them to actually follow

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Speaker 5: up what they promise. I need them to make sure

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Speaker 5: that the climate politics actually cuts emissions and it isn't

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Speaker 5: just greenwashing politics as it is right now.

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Speaker 1: In this bonus episode of The Black Thread, we heard

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Speaker 1: how a project that looks like a climate win on

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Speaker 1: paper can still contribute to far greater emissions once the

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Speaker 1: full picture is taken into account. We've heard how human rights,

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Speaker 1: indigenous land use, worker safety, and questions of greenwashing all

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Speaker 1: converge in the case of Melkoa, and how increasingly the

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Speaker 1: true costs of Norway's continued fossil fuel extraction are being

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Speaker 1: brought to light. There's a phrase in Norwegian bernati anister,

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Speaker 1: or a bear's service that springs to mind here. It's

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Speaker 1: an expression that refers to a fable about a bear

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Speaker 1: using a stone to swat a fly on its sleeping

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Speaker 1: companion's face, and in doing so, killing the companion. It's

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Speaker 1: about actions that have good intentions for the recipient but

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Speaker 1: ultimately leave them worse off despite looking good. In always

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Speaker 1: domestic climate accounting, the net climate impact of the proposed

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Speaker 1: electrification of Melkoya is not a good one. To me.

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Speaker 1: That sounds like a bunty unster. Indeed, Melkoya is a

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Speaker 1: cautionary tale. It's a reminder that renewable technology alone doesn't

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Speaker 1: equal climate leadership, and that the intersection of economy, energy,

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Speaker 1: and ethics can still leave communities and the planet paying

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Speaker 1: the price.

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Speaker 3: It's also worth.

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Speaker 1: Remembering who the legal challenges we've discussed are aimed at.

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Speaker 1: Cases like this aren't brought against companies like Equanor. They're

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Speaker 1: brought against the Norwegian state. Under Norwegian law, it's the

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Speaker 1: state that issues the licenses, sets the frameworks, and carries

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Speaker 1: the responsibility for whether a project should go ahead or not.

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Speaker 1: When the state chooses a path that extends fossil fuel

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Speaker 1: production or abuses indigenous rights, it's the state, not the

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Speaker 1: oil companies, that ends up in court. Back in episode two,

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Speaker 1: Ana Kharansa that from the Norwegian Climate Foundation, told us

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Speaker 1: that Equinor and its peers don't hold all the cards.

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Speaker 1: She argued that its politicians who have consistently pushed for

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Speaker 1: more oil and gas, and Melkoya is an example of

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Speaker 1: that dynamic in action. It's the government that sets the direction,

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Speaker 1: the same government elected by the public, the same institutions

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Speaker 1: meant to safeguard rights, land and the long term interests

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Speaker 1: of the Norwegian people, and that matters because of everything

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Speaker 1: we know about Norway, Norwegians and the values that define them.

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Speaker 1: Norway sees itself as a climate leader, a defender of

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Speaker 1: human rights, and a force for good in the world.

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Speaker 1: But Melikoya shows how difficult it is to uphold that

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Speaker 1: image while continuing to expand oil and gas extraction. Once

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Speaker 1: the slick storytelling and the rhetorical gymnastics fall away and

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Speaker 1: the facts come into focus, the idea of a climate

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Speaker 1: friendly oil nation becomes impossible to maintain. The gas between

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Speaker 1: the story Norway tells about itself and the decisions it

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Speaker 1: continues to make is the heart of the Norwegian paradox.

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Speaker 1: A nation with strong values, strong institutions, and a strong

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Speaker 1: sense of fairness, yet one that can still struggle to

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Speaker 1: align its actions with those ideals when it really matters.

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Speaker 1: Melkoya makes it clear sooner or later, Norway will have

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Speaker 1: to choose between the story it tells itself and the

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Speaker 1: truth the world is already beginning to see. Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 1: and catch you next time. The Black Thread is a

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Speaker 1: collaboration between Communicating Climate Change and Klimakultur. It was written

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Speaker 1: and narrated by Dick and Bonvicstone produced and edited by

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Speaker 1: lever Solid Schulearud and the executive producer was vigdis Bonvicstone

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Speaker 1: artwork is by Anya Jimushkevich. For more information see the

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Speaker 1: show notes