Advertisement

Sustainability Science

, Volume 13, Issue 3, pp 599–616 | Cite as

Environmental justice and the expanding geography of wind power conflicts

  • Sofia Avila
Special Feature: Original Article The EJAtlas: Ecological Distribution Conflicts as Forces for Sustainability
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:
Part of the following topical collections:
  1. Special Feature: The EJAtlas: Ecological Distribution Conflicts as Forces for Sustainability

Abstract

Wind power is expanding globally. Simultaneously, a growing number of conflicts against large-scale wind farms are emerging in multiple locations around the world. As these processes occur, new questions arise on how electricity from wind is being generated, how such energy is flowing within societies, and how these production-flows are being shaped by specific power structures. The present paper explores the expanding geography of wind energy conflicts by analyzing 20 case studies from across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. Based on the Environmental Justice Atlas database, it reflects on how land pressures and patterns of uneven development emerge as two features of the current expansion of wind farms. Following a relational analysis, these patterns are examined to interpret the plural instances of opposition emerging throughout the rural spaces of the world. The article argues that previously unexplored forms of collective action are expanding the scope and content of the “wind energy debate”. In addition to the claims of “landscape” and “wildlife protection” addressed by the existing literature, this study sheds light on the rural/peripheral contexts where opposition emerges through the defense of indigenous territories, local livelihoods and communal development projects. The study contends that these “emerging storylines” embrace an environmental justice perspective when challenging the socially unequal and geographically uneven patterns reproduced by the ecological modernization paradigm. From this lens, cases of local opposition are not interpreted as selfish forces blocking a low-carbon transition, but instead, are understood as political instances that enable a wider discussion about the ways such transition should take place.

Keywords

Wind energy Land pressures Uneven development Ecological modernization Conservationism Environmental justice. 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgements

The author is financially supported by CONACYT-Postgraduate Research Grant. This article was developed within the ENVJUSTICE Project (European Research Council/No 695446). Thanks to the editors of the Special Feature: “The EJAtlas: Ecological Distribution Conflicts as Forces for Sustainability”. Thanks to Joan Martínez-Alier, Leah Temper, Alevgul Sorman, Gonzalo Gamboa and Lewis King for supporting the writing process. Special thanks to the two anonymous reviewers who engaged with the manuscript providing valuable insights. Any error remains on the author.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

References

  1. Acselrad H (2010) The “environmentalization” of social struggles, the environmental justice movement in Brazil. Estudos Avançados 24(68):103–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Agterbosch S, Glasbergen P, Vermeulen WJV (2007) Social barriers in wind power implementation in The Netherlands. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 11(6):1025–1055CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Anguelovski I, Martinez-Alier J (2014) The “environmentalism of the poor” revisited: Territory and place in disconnected global struggles. Ecol Econ 102:167–176CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Araújo R (2012) Moradores regaem a usinas eólicas. Tribuna do Norte. Published: 08/01/2012. http://www.tribunadonorte.com.br/noticia/moradores-reagem-a-usinas-eolicas/208373. Accessed on 03 Jan 17
  5. Asara V, Otero I, Demaria F, Corbera E (2015) Socially sustainable degrowth as a social–ecological transformation: repoliticizing sustainability. Sustain Sci 10(3):375–384CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Avila-Calero S (2017) Contesting energy transitions: wind power and conflicts in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. J Political Ecol 24:993–1012Google Scholar
  7. Baka J (2013) The political construction of wasteland: governmentality, land acquisition and social inequality in South India. Dev Chang 44(2):409–428CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Bankwatch Network (2010) Over the edge: Enel’s plans to export its pollution to Porto Romano, Albania. Available at: http://bankwatch.org/documents/PortoRomanoOverTheEdge.pdf. Accessed on 29 Mar 17
  9. Bell D, Gray T, Haggett C (2005) The “social gap” in wind farm siting decisions: explanations and policy responses. Environ Politics 14:460–477CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Birdlife International (2017) Migratory Soaring Birds Project. http://migratorysoaringbirds.undp.birdlife.org/en/. Accessed on 01 Mar 2017
  11. Bosley P, Bosley K (1992) Risks and benefits of wind generated electricity. Energy Sources 14:1–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Bouzarovski S, Simcock N (2017) Spatializing energy justice. Energy Policy. In pressGoogle Scholar
  13. Bradley K, Hedrén J (2014) Utopian Thought in the Making of Green Futures. In: Bradley K, Hedrén J (eds) Green utopianism: perspectives, politics and micro-practices. Routledge, New York, pp 1–20Google Scholar
  14. Brand U (2016) “Transformation” as a new critical orthodoxy. The Strategic Use of the Term “Transformation”does not prevent multiple crises. GAIA 25(1): 23–27Google Scholar
  15. Brey P (2017) Sustainable Technologies for Sustainable Lifestyles. In: Kaplan MD, Philosophy,technology and the environment. MIT Press Scholarship OnlineGoogle Scholar
  16. Brown KB (2011) Wind power in northeastern Brazil: Local burdens, regional benefits and growing opposition. Clim Dev 3:344–360CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Bryant RL (ed) (2015) the international handbook of political ecology. Edward Elgar, UK–USAGoogle Scholar
  18. Bryant RL, Bailey S (1997) Third world political ecology. Routledge, LondonGoogle Scholar
  19. Bryant B, Mohai P (1992) Race and the incidence of environmental hazards: a time for discourse. Westview Press, U.S.Google Scholar
  20. Bullard R (1990) Dumping in dixie: race, class, andenvironmental quality. Westview Press, BoulderGoogle Scholar
  21. Calvert K (2016) From ‘energy geography’ to ‘energy geographies’. Perspectives on a fertile academic borderland. Prog Hum Geogr 40(1):105–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Centre for Science and the Environment-CSE (2013) EIA Guidelines Wind Power Sector, New DelhiGoogle Scholar
  23. Chávez A (2014) Resistencia a las eólicas en Oaxaca. Donde el viento vale oro. Entrevista con Bettina Cruz Velázquez. En: La Jornada, Ojarasca, Published: 2014/10/11. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2014/10/11/oja- viento.html. Accessed on 29 March 17
  24. Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras-COPINH (2011) Proyecto Eólico del Cerro de Hula destroza nuestras tierras y afecta nuestras vidas,agua y comunidades. Published: 03/11/2011. https://copinh.org/article/proyecto-eolico-del-cerro-de-hula-destroza-nuestra/. Accessed on 29 March 17
  25. Del Bene D, Scheidel A, Temper L (2018) More dams, moreviolence? A global analysis of resistance, repression and violence around dams. Sustainability Science, this featureGoogle Scholar
  26. Demaria F, Schindler S (2016) Contesting urban metabolism: struggles over waste-to-energy in Delhi, India. Antipode 48:293–313CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Denholm P, Hand M, Jackson M, Ong S (2009) Land-use requirements of modern wind power plants in the United States. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USACrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Dunlap A (2017) Wind energy: toward a “sustainable violence” in Oaxaca. NACLA Rep Am 49(4):483–488CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Ejatlas (2014) Parque eólico Jepirachi, Colombia, In: Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/parque-eolico-jepirachi-colombia. Accessed on 29 March 17
  30. Ejatlas (2015) Suzlon Energy windfarms in Kutch District, India, In: Atlas of Environmental Justice.http://ejatlas.org/conflict/suzlon-energy-in-kutch-district. Accessed on 29 March 17
  31. Ejatlas (2016a) Proyecto eólico del Cerro de Hula, Honduras. Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/proyecto-eolico-del-cerro-de-hula-honduras. Accessed on 29 March 17
  32. Ejatlas (2016b) Quilombola communities affected by wind power projects in Caetité region, Brazil. Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/quilombola-communities-affected-by-wind-power-projects-in-caetite-region-brazil. Accessed on 29 March 17
  33. Ejatlas (2016c) Chiloé wind power project in Mapuche territory, Chile. Atlas of Environmental Justice. http://ejatlas.org/conflict/chiloe-wind-power-project-in-mapuche-territory. Accessed on 29 March 17
  34. Ejatlas (2016d) Lake Turkana Project in Indigenous Territories, Kenya. Atlas of Environmental Justice. http://ejatlas.org/conflict/lake-turkana-project-in-indigenous-territories. Accessed on 29 March 17
  35. Ejatlas (2016e) Movement against industrial Renewable Energy Resources (RES) in Chios, Greece. Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/movement-against-industrial-renewable-energy-resources-res-in-chios. Accessed on 29 March 17
  36. Ejatlas (2016f) Large-scale Wind Farm in Sami reindeer land, Sweden. Atlas of Environmental Justice. http://ejatlas.org/conflict/large-scale-wind-farm-in-sami-reindeer-pastures. Accessed on 29 March 17
  37. Ejatlas (2017a) Mareña Renovables in San Dionisio del Mar, Oaxaca, Mexico. Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/marena-renovables-in-san-dionisio-del-mar-oaxaca. Accessed on 29 March 17
  38. Ejatlas (2017b) Corporate Wind Farms in Ixtepec vs community’s inititiative, Oaxaca, Mexico. In: Atlas of Environmental Justice. http://ejatlas.org/conflict/communal-members-of-ixtepec-contending-to-develop-a-wind-farm-cooperative. Accessed on 29 March 17
  39. Ejatlas (2017c) Baleia Wind Power Complex in Ceará, Brazil. Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/baleia-wind-power-complex-in-ceara-brasil. Accessed on 29 March 17
  40. Ejatlas (2017d) Wind Farms in the Sustainable Development Reserve of Ponta do Tubarão, Brazil. Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/wind-farms-in-the-sustainable-development-reserve-of-ponta-do-tubarao-brasil. Accessed on 29 March 17
  41. Ejatlas (2017e) Tribals and wealthy residents against Cape Wind Farm, Massachusetts, USA. Atlas of Environmental Justice. http://ejatlas.org/conflict/tribal-opposition-against-cape-wind-farm. Accessed on 29 March 17
  42. Ejatlas (2017f) Lamu Cordisons Wind Power Project, Kenya. Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/lamu-cordisons-wind-power-project-kenya. Accessed on 29 March 17
  43. Ejatlas (2017g) Wind Power Plants in occupied territories of Western Sahara. Atlas of Environmental Justice. http://ejatlas.org/conflict/wind-power-plants-in-occupied-territories-of-western-sahara. Accessed on 29 March 17
  44. Ejatlas (2017h) Unlawful removal of olive trees and wind energy project in Karaburun, Turkey. Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/unlawful-removal-of-olive-trees-and-wind-energy-project-in-karaburun-turkey. Accessed on 29 March 17
  45. Ejatlas (2017i) Wind Farm Installation in the Protected Area of Karaburuni Peninsula, Albania. Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/wind-farm-installation-in-the-protected-area-of-karaburuni-peninsula-albania. Accessed on 29 March 17
  46. Ejatlas (2017j) Wind farm at Volovja reber, Slovenia. Atlas of Environmental Justice. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/wind-farm-at-volovja-reber-slovenia. Accessed on 29 March 17
  47. Ellis G, Barry J, Robinson C (2006) Renewable energy and discoursesof objection: towards deliberative policy making. Report of ESRC research project by Queen’s University, Belfast. https://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/REDOWelcome/filestore/Filetoupload,40561,en.pdf
  48. Escobar A (2008) Territories of difference: place, movements, life, redes. Duke University Press, DurhamCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  49. EPAW (2015) European platform against windfarms, Despite the judicial decisions that were commissioned to stop the Karaburun WPP, on the 13th of June the investor Lodos A.S started to run the German ENERCON turbines again. Available at: http://www.epaw.org/echoes.php?lang=el&article=n347. Accessed 29 Mar 2017
  50. Fairhead J, Leach M, Scoones I (2012) Green Grabbing: a new appropriation of nature? J Peasant Stud 39(2):237–261CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  51. Fauset C (2010) The techno-fix approach to climate change and the energy crisis, issues and alternatives. In: Abramsky K Sparking a worldwide energy revolution: social struggles in the transition to a post-petrol world. AK Press, USA, pp 300–310Google Scholar
  52. Foyer J, Dumoulin KD (2015) The environmentalism of NGOs versus environmentalism of the poor? Mexico’s social-environmental coalitions. In: Almeida P, Cordero UA (eds) Handbook of Social Movements across Latin America. Springer, New York–London, pp 223–235CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  53. Gillard R, Gouldson A, Paavola J, Van Alstine J (2016) Transformational responses to climate change: beyond a systems perspective of social change in mitigation and adaptation. WIREs Clim Chang 7:251–265CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  54. Gómez-Baggethun E, Naredo JM (2015) In search of lost time: the rise and fall of limits to growth in international sustainability policy. Sustain Sci 10:385–395CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  55. Harrison C (2013) The historical–geographical construction of power: electricity in Eastern North Carolina. Local Environ 18(4):469–486CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  56. Hawken P, Lovins A, Lovins H (1999) Natural capitalism: creating the next industrial revolution. Little, Brown & Company, BostonGoogle Scholar
  57. Holifield R, Chakraborty J, Walker G (2018) The Routledge handbook of environmental justice. Routledge, New YorkGoogle Scholar
  58. Hornborg A (2014) why solar panels don’t grow on trees. In: Bradley K, Hedrén J (eds) Green Utopianism: Perspectives, Politics and Micro-Practices. Routledge, New York, pp 76–97 technological utopianism and the uneasy relation between marxism and ecological economics.Google Scholar
  59. Huber M (2015) Theorizing energy geographies. Geogr Compass. pp 1–12Google Scholar
  60. Ioannis Fyrippis I, Axaopoulos PJ, Panayiotou G (2010) Wind energy potential assessment in Naxos Island. Greece Appl Energy 87:577–586CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  61. Jessup B (2010) Plural and hybrid environmental values: a discourse analysis of the wind energy conflict in Australia and the United Kingdom. Environ Politics 19:21–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  62. Kallis G, Demaria F, Dalisa G (2014) Introduction. In: D’alisa G, Demaria F, Kallis G Degrowth: a vocabulary for a new era. Routledge, Oxxon, pp 28–45Google Scholar
  63. Kothari A, Demaria F, Acosta A (2014) Buen vivir, degrowth and ecological swaraj: alternatives to sustainable development and the green economy. Development 57(3):362–375CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  64. Martinez-Alier J (2009) Social Metabolism, Ecological Distribution Conflicts, and Languages of Valuation. Capital Nat Social 20:58–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  65. Martínez-Alier J (2002) The environmentalism of the poor: a study of ecological conflicts and valuation. Edward Elgar, CheltenhamCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  66. Martínez-Alier J (2012) Environmental Justice and Economic Degrowth: an alliance between two movements. Capital Nat Social 23(1):51–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  67. McCarthy J (2015) A socioecological fix to capitalist crisis and climate change? The possibilities and limits of renewable energy. Environ Plan A 47:2485–2502CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  68. Merlinsky MG (2015) Los conflictos ambientales y el debate público sobre el desarrollo en Argentina. Ciencia e Investigación 65(3):5–17Google Scholar
  69. Mitchell T (2011) Carbon democracy: political power in the age of oil. Verso, LondonGoogle Scholar
  70. Mol A (1996) Ecological modernisation and institutionalreflexivity: environmental reform in the late modern age. Environ Politics 5:302–323CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  71. Mol A, Sonnenfeld D (2000) Ecological modernisation around the world. Environ Politics 9(1)Google Scholar
  72. Momoh JA, Meliopoulos S, Saint R (2012) Centralized and distributed generated power systems. A comparison approach. PSERC-Howard University. Available at: http://www.vernimmen.com/ftp/An_introduction_to_distributed_generation.pdf. Accessed 3 Jan 2017
  73. Newell P, Mulvaney D (2013) The political economy of the ‘just transition’. Geogr J 179:132–140CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  74. OECD/IEA (2014) The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Energy Agency. Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report 2014, Executive Summary, FranceGoogle Scholar
  75. Osland O (2016) Ecological modernisation revisited in Norway. World Political Sci 12:347–371CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  76. Pasqualetti MJ (2011) Opposing wind energy landscapes: a search for common cause. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 101:907–917CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  77. Pasqualetti MJ, Gipe P, Righter RW (2002) A landscape of power. In: Pasqualetti MJ, Gipe P, Righter RW (eds) Wind power in view: energy landscapes in a crowded world. Academic Press, Cambridge, pp 3–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  78. Penndorf SB (2015) The Renewable Energy Market is Evolving. Here’s How. Rocky Mountain Institute. Published: 11/02/2015. Last consulted: 06/01/2017Google Scholar
  79. Pérez-Rincón M, Vargas-Morales J, Crespo-Marín J (2017) Trends in social metabolism and environmental conflicts in four Andean countries from 1970 to 2013. Sustain Sci. pp 1–14Google Scholar
  80. Perreault T, Bridge G, McCarthy J (2015) The Routledge handbook of political ecology. Routledge, Oxon-NYGoogle Scholar
  81. Petrova AM (2013) NIMBYism revisited: public acceptance of wind energy in the United States. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Clim Chang 4:575–601Google Scholar
  82. REN21 (2016) Renewable energy policy network for the 21st century. Renewables 2016 global status report, FranceGoogle Scholar
  83. Rignall K, Atia L (2016) The global rural: relational geographies of poverty and uneven development. Geogr Compass (11)Google Scholar
  84. Robbins P (2004) Political ecology. Blackwell, OxfordGoogle Scholar
  85. Rocheleau DE (2015a) Roots, rhizomes, networks and territories: reimagining pattern and power in political ecologies. In: Bryant RL (ed) The International Handbook of Political Ecology. Edward Elgar, UK–USA, pp 70–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  86. Rocheleau DE (2015b) Networked, rooted and territorial: green grabbing and resistance in Chiapas. J Peasant Stud 42:695–723CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  87. Rojas GJC (2012) Conflictos ambientales por medidas de mitigación al cambio climático en territorio Wayuu: el Parque Eólico Jepirachi, 1999–2011, Colombia. Tesis de Magister en Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo. Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Instituto de Estudios Ambientales, ColombiaGoogle Scholar
  88. Sawyer S (2004) Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador. Duke University Press, DurhamCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  89. Scheidel A, Sorman A (2012) Energy transitions and the global land rush: ultimate drivers and persistent consequences. Glob Environ Change 22:588–595CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  90. Scheidel A, Temper L, Demaria F, Martinez-Alier J (2018)Ecological distribution conflicts as forces for sustainability: an overview and conceptual framework. Sustainability Science, this featureGoogle Scholar
  91. Schlosberg D (2013) Theorising environmental justice: the expanding sphere of a discourse. Environ Politics 22:37–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  92. Scoones I (2016) The politics of sustainability and development. Annu Rev Environ Resour 41:293–319CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  93. Smil V (2008) Energy in nature and society: general energetics of complex systems. The MIT Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
  94. Smil V (2016) What I See When I See a Wind Turbine. IEEE Spectrum. http://www.vaclavsmil.com/wp-content/uploads/15.WINDTURBINE.pdf
  95. Smith E, Klick H (2007) Explaining NIMBY opposition to wind power. Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston. http://www.polsci.ucsb.edu/faculty/smith/wind.pdf
  96. Sovacool B, Dworkin MH (2015) Energy justice: conceptual insights and practical applications. Appl Energy 142:(2015) 435–444CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  97. Špirić J (2017) Ecological distribution conflicts and sustainability: lessons from the post-socialist European semi-periphery. Sustain Sci this feature:1–16Google Scholar
  98. Swyngedouw E (2010) Apocalypse Forever? Post-political populism and the spectre of climate change. Theor Cult Soc 27:213–232CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  99. Swyngedouw E (2011) Whose environment? The end of nature, climate change and the process of post-politization. Ambiente Sociedade XIV:69–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  100. Szarka J (2007) Wind power in Europe: politics, business and society. Palgrave, New YorkCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  101. Temper L, Del Bene D, Martinez-Alier J (2015) Mapping the frontiers and frontlines of environmental justice: the EJatlas. J Political Ecol 22:255–278CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  102. Thayer RL, Freeman C (1987) ‘Altamont: public perceptions of a wind energy landscape’. Landsc Urban Plann 14:379–398CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  103. Thayer RL, Hansen H (1991) Wind farm siting conflicts in California: implications for energy policy. Center for Design Research, University of California, CaliforniaGoogle Scholar
  104. Toke D, Strachan PA (2006) Ecological modernization and wind power in the UK. Eur Environ 16:155–166CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  105. Trainer T (2014) Some inconvenient theses. Energy Pol 64:168–174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  106. Walker G (2009) Globalizing environmental justice: the geography and politics of frame contextualization and evolution. Glob Soc Pol 9:355–382CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  107. Weale A (1992) New politics of pollution. Manchester University Press, ManchesterGoogle Scholar
  108. Wolsink M (2000) Wind power and the NIMBY-myth: institutional capacity and the limited significance. Renew Energy 21:40–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  109. Yenneti K, Day R, Golubchikov O (2016) Spatial justice and the land politics of renewables: dispossessing vulnerable communities through solar energy mega-projects. Geoforum 76:90–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  110. Zografos C, Martinez-Alier J (2009) The politics of landscape value: a case study of wind farm conflict in rural Catalonia. Environ Plan 41:1726–1744CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA)Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)BarcelonaSpain

Personalised recommendations