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Papers by Daniela Del Bene
Routledge eBooks, Jun 2, 2023
Journal of Political Ecology, Dec 1, 2015
This article highlights the need for collaborative research on ecological conflicts within a glob... more This article highlights the need for collaborative research on ecological conflicts within a global perspective. As the social metabolism of our industrial economy increases, intensifying extractive activities and the production of waste, the related social and environmental impacts generate conflicts and resistance across the world. This expansion of global capitalism leads to greater disconnection between the diverse geographies of injustice along commodity chains. Yet, at the same time, through the globalization of governance processes and Environmental Justice (EJ) movements, local political ecologies are becoming increasingly transnational and interconnected. We first make the case for the need for new approaches to understanding such interlinked conflicts through collaborative and engaged research between academia and civil society. We then present a large-scale research project aimed at understanding the determinants of resource extraction and waste disposal conflicts globally through a collaborative mapping initiative: The EJAtlas, the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice. This article introduces the EJAtlas mapping process and its methodology, describes the process of co-design and development of the atlas, and assesses the initial outcomes and contribution of the tool for activism, advocacy and scientific knowledge. We explain how the atlas can enrich EJ studies by going beyond the isolated case study approach to offer a wider systematic evidence-based enquiry into the politics, power relations and socio-metabolic processes surrounding environmental justice struggles locally and globally.
The Journal of Peasant Studies, Dec 3, 2022
Ambiente & Sociedade, 2021
After the Vale's tailings dam failure in Brumadinho (Minas Gerais) in early 2019, a group of rese... more After the Vale's tailings dam failure in Brumadinho (Minas Gerais) in early 2019, a group of researchers and activists from around the world produced a thematic map in the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas) including 30 cases of environmental conflicts in which Vale had a prominent role. In this paper, these cases are analysed in light of Vale's corporate social responsibility (CSR) discourses and practices, aiming to explore the contradiction of high CSR standards in the company and in other large multinationals in the mining sector coexisting with many socio-environmental conflicts. The analysis indicates that the company's performance contrasts with its CSR discourse and that, even when Vale considers its performance both responsible and exemplary, the company reproduces environmental injustices and is therefore rather practicing Corporate Social Irresponsibility.
Sustainability Science, Apr 10, 2018
The present article analyses a unique database of 220 dam related environmental conflicts, retrie... more The present article analyses a unique database of 220 dam related environmental conflicts, retrieved from the Global Atlas on Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), and based on knowledge co-production between academics and activists. Despite well-known controversial social and environmental impacts of dams, efforts to increase renewable energy generation have reinstated the interest into hydropower development globally. People affected by dams have largely denounced such 'unsustainabilities' through collective non-violent actions. Nevertheless, we found that repression, criminalization, violent targeting of activists and assassinations are recurrent features of conflictive dams. Violent repression is particularly high when indigenous people are involved. Indirect forms of violence are also analyzed through socioeconomic , environmental, and health impacts. We argue that increasing repression of the opposition against unwanted energy infrastructures does not only serve to curb specific protest actions, but also aims to delegitimize and undermine differing understanding of sustainability, epistemologies, and world-views. This analysis cautions that allegedly sustainable renewables such as hydropower often replicates patterns of violence within a frame of an 'extractivism of renewables'. We finally suggest that co-production of knowledge between scientists, activists, and communities should be largely encouraged in order to investigate sensitive and contentious topics in sustainability studies.
Sustainability Science, Apr 20, 2018
Springer eBooks, 2023
Cartography and mapping practices hold a close connection to Environmental Justice (hereafter, EJ... more Cartography and mapping practices hold a close connection to Environmental Justice (hereafter, EJ). Since the inception and mobilization of the concept of EJ in the 1980s, EJ scholars have developed maps to expose the unequal distribution of environmental burdens and benefits, showing how toxic dumpsites and polluting industries are largely located adjacent to vulnerable and disadvantaged communities (Bullard, 1990, 1999; Pellow et al., 2002; Mohai et al., 2009). Environmental Justice Organizations (EJOs) and activist scholars have also engaged in mapping work as both a research and mobilizing tool (Walker, 2009; Drozdz, 2020). The Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (hereafter EJAtlas) is a reflection of an evolving approach taking place in the field of EJ studies and activism. The EJAtlas was created in 2011 to collect and systematize data around socioenvironmental conflicts arising in response to multiple forms of environmental degradation across the globe. Initially made possible by the EJOLT project, 1 the work of the EJAtlas has continued through two milestone projects led by directors Joan Martinez-Alier (ERC Advanced Grant ENVJUSTICE 2016-2021) and Leah Temper (ISSC-sponsored ACKnowl-EJ project, codirected with Ashish Kothari 2016-2018). These projects have expanded the scope of the conflicts database and
Journal of Business Ethics, Feb 11, 2022
Journal of Business Ethics, Dec 3, 2021
Controversies around large-scale development projects offer many cases and insights which may be ... more Controversies around large-scale development projects offer many cases and insights which may be analyzed through the lenses of corporate social (ir)responsibility (CSIR) and business ethics studies. In this paper, we confront the CSR narratives and strategies of WeBuild (formerly known as Salini Impregilo), an Italian transnational construction company. Starting from the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), we collect evidence from NGOs, environmental justice organizations, journalists, scholars, and community leaders on socio-environmental injustices and controversies surrounding 38 large hydropower schemes built by the corporation throughout the last century. As a counter-reporting exercise, we code (un) sustainability discourses from a plurality of sources, looking at their discrepancy under the critical lenses of post-normal science and political ecology, with environmental justice as a normative framework. Our results show how the mismatch of narratives can be interpreted by considering the voluntary, self-reporting, non-binding nature of CSR accounting performed by a corporation wishing to grow in a global competitive market. Contributing to critical perspectives on political CS(I)R, we question the reliability of current CSR mechanisms and instruments, calling for the inclusion of complexity dimensions in and a re-politicization of CS(I)R accounting and ethics. We argue that the fields of post-normal science and political ecology can contribute to these goals.
Political Geography, Oct 1, 2022
Global Environmental Change
Studies in Ecological Economics
In this chapter, we revise the trajectory and relevance of the Global Atlas of Environmental Just... more In this chapter, we revise the trajectory and relevance of the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas) as one of the main research projects and outcomes of the Barcelona Research Group in Environmental Justice Studies and Political Ecology. We first trace the origins, scope, and methodology of the EJAtlas as a unique participatory mapping project that is both global in scope and informed by the co-production of knowledge between academia and groups seeking environmental justice. We then highlight how the work of the EJAtlas reflects and contributes to a larger trend in the field of Environmental Justice that looks to integrate critical cartography and mapping practices into both research and activist efforts. Looking ahead, we reflect on the limits and unresolved challenges of the platform, as well as on the innovative uses of the tool for advancing a spatial, comparative, and statistical political ecology.
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Apr 1, 2019
Science Advances
To what extent do extractive and industrial development pressures affect Indigenous Peoples’ life... more To what extent do extractive and industrial development pressures affect Indigenous Peoples’ lifeways, lands, and rights globally? We analyze 3081 environmental conflicts over development projects to quantify Indigenous Peoples’ exposure to 11 reported social-environmental impacts jeopardizing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples are affected in at least 34% of all documented environmental conflicts worldwide. More than three-fourths of these conflicts are caused by mining, fossil fuels, dam projects, and the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and livestock (AFFL) sector. Landscape loss (56% of cases), livelihood loss (52%), and land dispossession (50%) are reported to occur globally most often and are significantly more frequent in the AFFL sector. The resulting burdens jeopardize Indigenous rights and impede the realization of global environmental justice.
The Journal of Peasant Studies
Environmental Research Letters, 2020
In this article we undertake a systematic mapping of 649 cases of resistance movements to both fo... more In this article we undertake a systematic mapping of 649 cases of resistance movements to both fossil fuel (FF) and low carbon energy (LCE) projects, providing the most comprehensive overview of such place-based energy-related mobilizations to date. We find that (1) Place-based resistance movements are succeeding in curbing both fossil-fuel and low-carbon energy projects. Over a quarter of projects encountering social resistance have been cancelled, suspended or delayed. (2) The evidence highlights that low carbon, renewable energy and mitigation projects are as conflictive as FF projects, and that both disproportionately impact vulnerable groups such as rural communities and Indigenous peoples. Amongst LCE projects, hydropower was found to have the highest number of conflicts with concerns over social and environmental damages. (3) Repression and violence against protesters and land defenders was rife in almost all activities, with 10% of all cases analysed involving assassination ...
Journal of Business Ethics, Dec 3, 2021
Controversies around large-scale development projects offer many cases and insights which may be ... more Controversies around large-scale development projects offer many cases and insights which may be analyzed through the lenses of corporate social (ir)responsibility (CSIR) and business ethics studies. In this paper, we confront the CSR narratives and strategies of WeBuild (formerly known as Salini Impregilo), an Italian transnational construction company. Starting from the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), we collect evidence from NGOs, environmental justice organizations, journalists, scholars, and community leaders on socio-environmental injustices and controversies surrounding 38 large hydropower schemes built by the corporation throughout the last century. As a counter-reporting exercise, we code (un) sustainability discourses from a plurality of sources, looking at their discrepancy under the critical lenses of post-normal science and political ecology, with environmental justice as a normative framework. Our results show how the mismatch of narratives can be interpreted by considering the voluntary, self-reporting, non-binding nature of CSR accounting performed by a corporation wishing to grow in a global competitive market. Contributing to critical perspectives on political CS(I)R, we question the reliability of current CSR mechanisms and instruments, calling for the inclusion of complexity dimensions in and a re-politicization of CS(I)R accounting and ethics. We argue that the fields of post-normal science and political ecology can contribute to these goals.
Routledge eBooks, Jun 2, 2023
Journal of Political Ecology, Dec 1, 2015
This article highlights the need for collaborative research on ecological conflicts within a glob... more This article highlights the need for collaborative research on ecological conflicts within a global perspective. As the social metabolism of our industrial economy increases, intensifying extractive activities and the production of waste, the related social and environmental impacts generate conflicts and resistance across the world. This expansion of global capitalism leads to greater disconnection between the diverse geographies of injustice along commodity chains. Yet, at the same time, through the globalization of governance processes and Environmental Justice (EJ) movements, local political ecologies are becoming increasingly transnational and interconnected. We first make the case for the need for new approaches to understanding such interlinked conflicts through collaborative and engaged research between academia and civil society. We then present a large-scale research project aimed at understanding the determinants of resource extraction and waste disposal conflicts globally through a collaborative mapping initiative: The EJAtlas, the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice. This article introduces the EJAtlas mapping process and its methodology, describes the process of co-design and development of the atlas, and assesses the initial outcomes and contribution of the tool for activism, advocacy and scientific knowledge. We explain how the atlas can enrich EJ studies by going beyond the isolated case study approach to offer a wider systematic evidence-based enquiry into the politics, power relations and socio-metabolic processes surrounding environmental justice struggles locally and globally.
The Journal of Peasant Studies, Dec 3, 2022
Ambiente & Sociedade, 2021
After the Vale's tailings dam failure in Brumadinho (Minas Gerais) in early 2019, a group of rese... more After the Vale's tailings dam failure in Brumadinho (Minas Gerais) in early 2019, a group of researchers and activists from around the world produced a thematic map in the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas) including 30 cases of environmental conflicts in which Vale had a prominent role. In this paper, these cases are analysed in light of Vale's corporate social responsibility (CSR) discourses and practices, aiming to explore the contradiction of high CSR standards in the company and in other large multinationals in the mining sector coexisting with many socio-environmental conflicts. The analysis indicates that the company's performance contrasts with its CSR discourse and that, even when Vale considers its performance both responsible and exemplary, the company reproduces environmental injustices and is therefore rather practicing Corporate Social Irresponsibility.
Sustainability Science, Apr 10, 2018
The present article analyses a unique database of 220 dam related environmental conflicts, retrie... more The present article analyses a unique database of 220 dam related environmental conflicts, retrieved from the Global Atlas on Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), and based on knowledge co-production between academics and activists. Despite well-known controversial social and environmental impacts of dams, efforts to increase renewable energy generation have reinstated the interest into hydropower development globally. People affected by dams have largely denounced such 'unsustainabilities' through collective non-violent actions. Nevertheless, we found that repression, criminalization, violent targeting of activists and assassinations are recurrent features of conflictive dams. Violent repression is particularly high when indigenous people are involved. Indirect forms of violence are also analyzed through socioeconomic , environmental, and health impacts. We argue that increasing repression of the opposition against unwanted energy infrastructures does not only serve to curb specific protest actions, but also aims to delegitimize and undermine differing understanding of sustainability, epistemologies, and world-views. This analysis cautions that allegedly sustainable renewables such as hydropower often replicates patterns of violence within a frame of an 'extractivism of renewables'. We finally suggest that co-production of knowledge between scientists, activists, and communities should be largely encouraged in order to investigate sensitive and contentious topics in sustainability studies.
Sustainability Science, Apr 20, 2018
Springer eBooks, 2023
Cartography and mapping practices hold a close connection to Environmental Justice (hereafter, EJ... more Cartography and mapping practices hold a close connection to Environmental Justice (hereafter, EJ). Since the inception and mobilization of the concept of EJ in the 1980s, EJ scholars have developed maps to expose the unequal distribution of environmental burdens and benefits, showing how toxic dumpsites and polluting industries are largely located adjacent to vulnerable and disadvantaged communities (Bullard, 1990, 1999; Pellow et al., 2002; Mohai et al., 2009). Environmental Justice Organizations (EJOs) and activist scholars have also engaged in mapping work as both a research and mobilizing tool (Walker, 2009; Drozdz, 2020). The Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (hereafter EJAtlas) is a reflection of an evolving approach taking place in the field of EJ studies and activism. The EJAtlas was created in 2011 to collect and systematize data around socioenvironmental conflicts arising in response to multiple forms of environmental degradation across the globe. Initially made possible by the EJOLT project, 1 the work of the EJAtlas has continued through two milestone projects led by directors Joan Martinez-Alier (ERC Advanced Grant ENVJUSTICE 2016-2021) and Leah Temper (ISSC-sponsored ACKnowl-EJ project, codirected with Ashish Kothari 2016-2018). These projects have expanded the scope of the conflicts database and
Journal of Business Ethics, Feb 11, 2022
Journal of Business Ethics, Dec 3, 2021
Controversies around large-scale development projects offer many cases and insights which may be ... more Controversies around large-scale development projects offer many cases and insights which may be analyzed through the lenses of corporate social (ir)responsibility (CSIR) and business ethics studies. In this paper, we confront the CSR narratives and strategies of WeBuild (formerly known as Salini Impregilo), an Italian transnational construction company. Starting from the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), we collect evidence from NGOs, environmental justice organizations, journalists, scholars, and community leaders on socio-environmental injustices and controversies surrounding 38 large hydropower schemes built by the corporation throughout the last century. As a counter-reporting exercise, we code (un) sustainability discourses from a plurality of sources, looking at their discrepancy under the critical lenses of post-normal science and political ecology, with environmental justice as a normative framework. Our results show how the mismatch of narratives can be interpreted by considering the voluntary, self-reporting, non-binding nature of CSR accounting performed by a corporation wishing to grow in a global competitive market. Contributing to critical perspectives on political CS(I)R, we question the reliability of current CSR mechanisms and instruments, calling for the inclusion of complexity dimensions in and a re-politicization of CS(I)R accounting and ethics. We argue that the fields of post-normal science and political ecology can contribute to these goals.
Political Geography, Oct 1, 2022
Global Environmental Change
Studies in Ecological Economics
In this chapter, we revise the trajectory and relevance of the Global Atlas of Environmental Just... more In this chapter, we revise the trajectory and relevance of the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas) as one of the main research projects and outcomes of the Barcelona Research Group in Environmental Justice Studies and Political Ecology. We first trace the origins, scope, and methodology of the EJAtlas as a unique participatory mapping project that is both global in scope and informed by the co-production of knowledge between academia and groups seeking environmental justice. We then highlight how the work of the EJAtlas reflects and contributes to a larger trend in the field of Environmental Justice that looks to integrate critical cartography and mapping practices into both research and activist efforts. Looking ahead, we reflect on the limits and unresolved challenges of the platform, as well as on the innovative uses of the tool for advancing a spatial, comparative, and statistical political ecology.
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Apr 1, 2019
Science Advances
To what extent do extractive and industrial development pressures affect Indigenous Peoples’ life... more To what extent do extractive and industrial development pressures affect Indigenous Peoples’ lifeways, lands, and rights globally? We analyze 3081 environmental conflicts over development projects to quantify Indigenous Peoples’ exposure to 11 reported social-environmental impacts jeopardizing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples are affected in at least 34% of all documented environmental conflicts worldwide. More than three-fourths of these conflicts are caused by mining, fossil fuels, dam projects, and the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and livestock (AFFL) sector. Landscape loss (56% of cases), livelihood loss (52%), and land dispossession (50%) are reported to occur globally most often and are significantly more frequent in the AFFL sector. The resulting burdens jeopardize Indigenous rights and impede the realization of global environmental justice.
The Journal of Peasant Studies
Environmental Research Letters, 2020
In this article we undertake a systematic mapping of 649 cases of resistance movements to both fo... more In this article we undertake a systematic mapping of 649 cases of resistance movements to both fossil fuel (FF) and low carbon energy (LCE) projects, providing the most comprehensive overview of such place-based energy-related mobilizations to date. We find that (1) Place-based resistance movements are succeeding in curbing both fossil-fuel and low-carbon energy projects. Over a quarter of projects encountering social resistance have been cancelled, suspended or delayed. (2) The evidence highlights that low carbon, renewable energy and mitigation projects are as conflictive as FF projects, and that both disproportionately impact vulnerable groups such as rural communities and Indigenous peoples. Amongst LCE projects, hydropower was found to have the highest number of conflicts with concerns over social and environmental damages. (3) Repression and violence against protesters and land defenders was rife in almost all activities, with 10% of all cases analysed involving assassination ...
Journal of Business Ethics, Dec 3, 2021
Controversies around large-scale development projects offer many cases and insights which may be ... more Controversies around large-scale development projects offer many cases and insights which may be analyzed through the lenses of corporate social (ir)responsibility (CSIR) and business ethics studies. In this paper, we confront the CSR narratives and strategies of WeBuild (formerly known as Salini Impregilo), an Italian transnational construction company. Starting from the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), we collect evidence from NGOs, environmental justice organizations, journalists, scholars, and community leaders on socio-environmental injustices and controversies surrounding 38 large hydropower schemes built by the corporation throughout the last century. As a counter-reporting exercise, we code (un) sustainability discourses from a plurality of sources, looking at their discrepancy under the critical lenses of post-normal science and political ecology, with environmental justice as a normative framework. Our results show how the mismatch of narratives can be interpreted by considering the voluntary, self-reporting, non-binding nature of CSR accounting performed by a corporation wishing to grow in a global competitive market. Contributing to critical perspectives on political CS(I)R, we question the reliability of current CSR mechanisms and instruments, calling for the inclusion of complexity dimensions in and a re-politicization of CS(I)R accounting and ethics. We argue that the fields of post-normal science and political ecology can contribute to these goals.
The environmental movement may be “the most comprehensive and influential movement of our time” (... more The environmental movement may be “the most comprehensive and influential movement of our time” (Castells 1997: 67), representing for the ‘post-industrial’ age what the workers’ movement was for the industrial period. Yet while strike statistics have been collected for many countries since the late nineteenth century (van der Velden 2007),1 until the present no administrative body tracks the occurrence and frequency of mobilizations or protests related to environmental issues at the global scale, in the way that the World Labour Organization tracks the occurrence of strike action.2 Thus until the present it has been impossible to properly document the prevalence and incidence of contentious activity related to environmental issues or to track the ebb and flow of protest activity. Such an exercise is necessary because if the twentieth century has been the one of workers struggles, the twenty-first century could well be the one of environmentalists. This Special Feature presents the results from such an exercise—The Global Atlas of Environmental Justice—a unique global inventory of cases of socio-environmental conflicts built through a collaborative process between academics and activist groups which includes both qualitative and quantitative data on thousands of conflictive projects as well as on the social response.
This Special Feature applies the lenses of political ecology and ecological economics to unpack and understand these socio-environmental conflicts, otherwise known as ‘ecological distribution conflicts’, (hereafter EDCs, Martinez-Alier 1995, 2002). The contributions in this special feature explore the why, what, how and who of these contentious processes within a new comparative political ecology.
The articles in this special issue underline the need for a politicization of socio-environmental debates, whereby political refers to the struggle over the kinds of worlds the people want to create and the types of ecologies they want to live in. We put the focus on who gains and who loses in ecological processes arguing that these issues need to be at the center of sustainability science. Secondly, we demonstrate how environmental justice groups and movements coming out of those conflicts play a fundamental role in redefining and promoting sustainability. We contend that protests are not disruptions to smooth governance that need to be managed and resolved, but that they express grievances as well as aspirations and demands and in this way may serve as potent forces that can lead to the transformation towards sustainability of our economies, societies and ecologies.
The articles in this collection contribute to a core question of sustainability science—why and through what political, social and economic processes some are denied the right to a safe environment, and how to support the necessary social and political transformation to enact environmental justice.
Open access: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-018-0563-4
Journal Sustainability Science
El 3 de marzo del 2017, se cumplió el primer aniversario del asesinato de la feminista y defensor... more El 3 de marzo del 2017, se cumplió el primer aniversario del asesinato de la feminista y defensora del medio ambiente Berta Cáceres. Lamentablemente, su asesinato no es un caso aislado. El homenaje a "Mujeres Defensoras de los Derechos Humanos" realizado por la Asociación por los Derechos de las Mujeres y el Desarrollo -AWID-(2016) informa sobre el asesinato de 87 mujeres defensoras alrededor del mundo, de las cuales, al menos 17 eran activistas ambientalistas y defensoras de los derechos de sus comunidades.
Journal of Political Ecology Vol. 21, 2014 20 Abstract In their own battles and strategy meetings... more Journal of Political Ecology Vol. 21, 2014 20
Abstract
In their own battles and strategy meetings since the early 1980s, EJOs (environmental justice organizations) and their networks have introduced several concepts to political ecology that have also been taken up by academics and policy makers. In this paper, we explain the contexts in which such notions have arisen, providing definitions of a wide array of concepts and slogans related to environmental inequities and sustainability, and explore the connections and relations between them. These concepts include: environmental justice, ecological debt, popular epidemiology, environmental racism, climate justice, environmentalism of the poor, water justice, biopiracy, food sovereignty, "green deserts", "peasant agriculture cools downs the Earth", land grabbing, Ogonization and Yasunization, resource caps, corporate accountability, ecocide, and indigenous territorial rights, among others. We examine how activists have coined these notions and built demands around them, and how academic research has in turn further applied them and supplied other related concepts, working in a mutually reinforcing way with EJOs. We argue that these processes and dynamics build an activist-led and co-produced social sustainability science, furthering both academic scholarship and activism on environmental justice.
Keywords: Political ecology, environmental justice organizations, environmentalism of the poor, ecological debt, activist knowledge
Joan Martinez-Alier a 1
Isabelle Anguelovski a
Patrick Bond b
Daniela Del Bene a
Federico Demaria a
Julien-Francois Gerber c
Lucie Greyl d
Willi Haas e
Hali Healy a
Victoria Marín-Burgos f
Godwin Ojo g
Marcelo Porto h
Leida Rijnhout i
Beatriz Rodríguez-Labajos a
Joachim Spangenberg j
Leah Temper a
Rikard Warlenius k
Ivonne Yánez l
Energy Sovereignty (ES) refers to political projects and visions towards a just generation, distr... more Energy Sovereignty (ES) refers to political projects and visions towards a just generation, distribution and control of energy sources by ecologically and culturally grounded mobilized communities, both urban and rural, in ways that do not affect others negatively, and with respect for ecological cycles. Energy Sovereignty acts as a slogan for organizations and movements to reclaim the right to take decisions about energy, understood as a natural commons and basis of life for all. It also refers to the plurality of systemic alternatives under way that challenge the dominant energy paradigm controlled by centralized powers. The concept of ES has been used since the 1990s in Latin America to challenge the privatization of basic services by transnational corporations and the 'corporatization' of the state enterprises. Similar to the claim for food sovereignty by farmers' movements, ES has become popular among organizations and movements globally, especially after 2000, as a response to multiple forms of extractivism, energy poverty, corporate oligopoly, patriarchy, privatization and trade agreements, wars and crimes to secure provision of fossil fuels.
Energy Sovereignty (ES) refers to political projects and visions towards a just generation, distr... more Energy Sovereignty (ES) refers to political projects and visions towards a just generation, distribution and control of energy sources by organized and conscious communities, provided that these do not affect others negatively, and with respect for ecological cycles. ES acts as a slogan for organizations and movements to reclaim the right to decide upon energy, understood as a natural commons and basis of life for all. It also refers to the plurality of systemic alternatives under way that challenge the dominant energy paradigm controlled by centralized powers.
Global Environmental Change, 2020
- Support of environmental defenders requires better understanding of environmental conflicts. -... more - Support of environmental defenders requires better understanding of environmental conflicts.
- Environmental defenders employ largely non-violent protest forms.
- Indigenous environmental defenders face significantly higher rates of violence.
- Combining preventive mobilization, tactical diversity and litigation increases activists’ success.
- Global grassroots environmentalism is a promising force for sustainability.
Abstract
Recent research and policies recognize the importance of environmental defenders for global sustainability and emphasize their need for protection against violence and repression. However, effective support may benefit from a more systematic understanding of the underlying environmental conflicts, as well as from better knowledge on the factors that enable environmental defenders to mobilize successfully. We have created the global Environmental Justice Atlas to address this knowledge gap. Here we present a large-n analysis of 2743 cases that sheds light on the characteristics of environmental conflicts and the environmental defenders involved, as well as on successful mobilization strategies. We find that bottom-up mobilizations for more sustainable and socially just uses of the environment occur worldwide across all income groups, testifying to the global existence of various forms of grassroots environmentalism as a promising force for sustainability. Environmental defenders are frequently members of vulnerable groups who employ largely non-violent protest forms. In 11% of cases globally, they contributed to halt environmentally destructive and socially conflictive projects, defending the environment and livelihoods. Combining strategies of preventive mobilization, protest diversification and litigation can increase this success rate significantly to up to 27%. However, defenders face globally also high rates of criminalization (20% of cases), physical violence (18%), and assassinations (13%), which significantly increase when Indigenous people are involved. Our results call for targeted actions to enhance the conditions enabling successful mobilizations, and for specific support for Indigenous environmental defenders.
Keywords: Environmental justice, Environmentalism of the poor, Environmental conflicts, Sustainability, Statistical political ecology, EJAtlas
Environmental Research Letters, 2020
In this article we undertake a systematic mapping of 649 cases of resistance movements to both fo... more In this article we undertake a systematic mapping of 649 cases of resistance movements to both fossil fuel (FF) and low carbon energy (LCE) projects, providing the most comprehensive overview of such place-based energy-related mobilizations to date. We find that (1) Place-based resistance movements are succeeding in curbing both fossil-fuel and low-carbon energy projects. Over a quarter of projects encountering social resistance have been cancelled, suspended or delayed. (2) The evidence highlights that low carbon, renewable energy and mitigation projects are as conflictive as FF projects, and that both disproportionately impact vulnerable groups such as rural communities and Indigenous peoples. Amongst LCE projects, hydropower was found to have the highest number of conflicts with concerns over social and environmental damages. (3) Repression and violence against protesters and land defenders was rife in almost all activities, with 10% of all cases analysed involving assassination of activists. Violence was particularly common in relation to hydropower, biomass, pipelines and coal extraction. Wind, solar and other renewables were the least conflictive and entailed lower levels of repression than other projects. The results caution that decarbonization of the economy is by no means inherently environmentally innocuous or socially inclusive. We find that conflicts and collective action are driven by multiple concerns through which community mobilization seeks to reshape the energy regime and its impacts. These include claims for localization, democratic participation, shorter energy chains, anti-racism, climate-justice-focused governance, and Indigenous leadership. Climate and energy policymakers need to pay closer attention to the demands and preferences of these collective movements pointing to transformative pathways to decarbonization.