Svampa - decarbonization consensus, green colonialism

Question 1

Polycrisis

Answer 1

The collapse is not only ecological but also political

War contributed to the exacerbation, old and new extractivism

Inequalities have been exacerbated in the aftermath of the pandemic

1% of the world’s population controls 38% of global wealth, while the poorest 50% of the world’s population owns only 2% of the total

The richest 1% of the world’s population emits more greenhouse gases than the poorest 50%.

Question 2

ecosocial transition

Answer 2

There are many transitions, not just one path to transition. There is not one conception of Energy transition, but many.

What I understand by Eco-social transition, what kind of energy transitions we have experienced and their consequences of the global South, specially Latino-America; what type of decarbonization is being proposed by the countries of the North, what is the position of critical sectors from the global South

Question 3

Dominant Transition

Answer 3

Tendency to reduce the socio-ecological transition to the energy transition

The reduction of the problem of energy transition to the change of matrix, of sources - from oil fuels to clean energy- without a reform of the energy system

How the energy transition is being carried out and who will pay the costs, in social and geopolitical terms

Dominant Trend : Corporate Energy Transition

Question 4

corporate energy transition

Answer 4

There are actors who, faced to the climate situation see a potential for wealth accumulation and geopolitical hegemony positioning in the energy transition

It is associated to “the universe of corporate environmentalism” or to the “technocratic-capitalist narrative”

Beyond the business sphere, the corporate energy transition, may have diverse supporters such as multinational companies, states, institutions and organizations

Whitin this framework, the issue is the control of acces to energy acces, materials and technologies.

Question 5

decarbonization consensus

Answer 5

Decarbonization Consensus: Bringel&Svampa, 2023

Green Colonialism as a centrepiece of the new capitalist consensus

Focus on decarbonisation, combating global warming, electrification of consumption and digitalisation

Deepening inequalities between North and South

No change in the metabolic profile

Exacerbation of the exploitation of minerals and metals

Carbon Metric, the other side of green Colonialism

Question 6

importance of Lithium

Answer 6

Lithium: strategic mineral for energy storage, via batteries, for electromobility

58% of global lithium resources and 53% of reserves is concentrated between Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, in High Andean salt flats, where many indigenous community live

Enormous geopolitical pressure:
-The main global automotive and electrical firms are present. Concentration in the global value chain and the extraction processes
-Concentration in the process of extraction

Question 7

water mining

Answer 7

-Intensive use of water (some studies indicate that 2 million liters are used per ton of lithium, Univ. of Antofagasta)

Competition with other productive activities

Large solid waste generation

Impact on biodiversity and territory

High Andean salt flats are wetlands

Question 8

resistence and narratives from the communities

Answer 8

Example: More than 40 communities of the Salinas Grandes (Argentina)

Holistic and ancestral perspective

Good Living, Rights of Nature, Territory, Selfdetermination, Plurinationality, Water and Common Goods, sustainability of life, Human Rights, Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Rights of Nature

Salt Flat as “a living being, as a giver of life“

Sacrifice zone configuration: enlargement of the ecological debt, now in the name of the “green transition”

Green Colonialism associated with transnational corporations, which in the name of Green Transition reproduce the domination over nature and populations.

Question 9

post-fossil world as a huge open-pit mine

Answer 9

There is no planet that can endure or enough lithium if the consumption models are not changed, facing electromobility

World Bank report notes that the production of minerals, such as graphite, lithium and cobalt, could result in an increase of nearly 500% by 2050, to meet the growing demand for clean energy technologies

Critical Raw Materials Act by EU

Question 10

Comparison between the Washington Consensus and the Commodity Consensus

Answer 10

1. The question of inevitability (of the corporate energy transition)
   -Increased concentration of power in non-democratic actors
   -The stake in legal security
2. Ecological Imperialism
3. The worsening of schizophrenic behaviours
   -New Features
   -From unipolar hegemony to multicolonialism
   -The conception and role of the state
   - Widening of the menu with respect to minerals necessary for the transition
   -A mineral Energy transition

Question 11

ecological debt

Answer 11

Between 1850 and the present: 90 companies are responsible for 60% of accumulated CO2 and methane emissions

We are consuming a planet and a half per year (ecological footprint). In 1900, UK and the USA accounted for 60% of CO2 emissions, 55% in 1950 and 50% in 1980.

Russia reached 200% in 1970 and China, 256% in 2009; USA 176% in 1973

Latin America is below 50%