Energy transition and territorial disputes: towards a participatory management model. Introduction to the issue

Abstract

As a result of the depletion of cheap fossil fuels and increasing evidence of the climate crisis caused by the large-scale burning of these energy sources since the Industrial Revolution, the ‘energy transition’ is a joint undertaking involving both institutional political stakeholders and predominant political groups within the general population. However, despite being signatories to the broad consensus known as the ‘Green Deal’, institutional stakeholders are failing to actually replace fossil fuels, preferring instead to advocate their ongoing intensive consumption – a consumption that continues to increase, with the complementary presence of wind and solar energy. As a result, what we are witnessing is not an energy transition, but rather an energy expansion. No one is questioning (and much less attempting to correct) our ‘imperial lifestyle’, which is based on extremely high energy and material consumption levels. Moreover, the industrialist maxim that more energy consumption automatically leads to greater wellbeing remains intact.

This ‘energy transition’ has alarming social and territorial implications, such as an increase in mining activities and their justification, particularly in certain regions of the Global South (extractivism), and the consequent consolidation of the attitude that views former colonies (as well as other regions that are slowly being encroached on as the boundaries of the mining grounds themselves and the sinkholes of waste that they generate spread ever wider) as areas to be sacrificed. In our text, we offer a critique of this so-called ‘transition’ strategy, touching upon key points that form the framework of the case study upon which this monograph focuses.