In Bram Noble, Greg Poelzer, Gwen Holdmann, Surabh Biswas and Diane Hirshberg (eds), Routledge Handbook of Arctic Energy Transition, Chapter 20, 2026.
As the Arctic region considers how to undertake energy transitions, this chapter sheds light on the prospects, promises, and pitfalls in Northern Norway. Limited habitable landmass means that renewable energy development can be understood as reconfiguring a sense of place for Arctic residents. Indeed, Norway’s Arctic regions are characterized by extensive mountain ranges, untouched wilderness, large fjords, low population density, and vast distances with few infrastructures. Territorial interventions necessarily deal with a particular sense of place, partly characterized by low population density and the clustering of habitable spaces. It thus becomes important to consider what such interventions entail and imply for local communities planning and facing energy transitions. This chapter addresses a key question about the form that local benefits of energy transitions are taking, and relatedly, examines the spatial scales at which energy infrastructure development is envisaged and associated justice implications. We first present the Norwegian Arctic as a sociocultural landscape, juxtaposing Indigenous perspectives and emergent economic opportunities linked to renewable energy development, grounded in thematic scholarship. We thereafter flag changing regional geopolitics pursuant to Russia’s war on Ukraine as key contextual background, then recount and analyze major elements of the governance of Arctic energy transitions in Northern Norway.
