{"id":3515678,"date":"2025-08-26T10:23:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/?p=3515678"},"modified":"2025-08-26T10:23:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:23:46","slug":"unpacking-the-coloniality-of-energy-seeking-alternatives-from-below","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2025-08-26\/unpacking-the-coloniality-of-energy-seeking-alternatives-from-below\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpacking the coloniality of energy, seeking alternatives from below"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This a more elaborated version of the Editorial note on Global Tapestry of Alternatives here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

By the\u00a0GTA<\/a>\u00a015th periodical team1)<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

For too long, discussions about energy have been confined to the realms of technicians and engineers. The energy we consume and the infrastructures sustaining its seemingly endless supply\u2014whether fossil fuels or electricity\u2014have largely remained out of sight and out of mind for much of modern history. As anthropologist Jaume Franquesa (2018) points out, the invisibility of energy in our industrial societies is striking: energy infrastructure becomes noticeable only when it fails, despite the tenfold increase in energy consumption over the past century that has made it central to our modern experience. This \u2018silence\u2019 within much of the social sciences, along with the general invisibility of energy, has had problematic consequences. On one hand, it has left energy discussions devoid of political and power analyses, reinforcing the notion that energy belongs in the hands of physicists and engineers and thus ignoring the power dynamics embedded within it. On the other, it has influenced how we approach conflicts surrounding energy systems, infrastructure, and projects, and terms like \u201cenergy justice\u201d or \u201cenergy transitions.\u201d These struggles often underplay the historical and political contexts in which the energy transition is being imagined, designed, and implemented.<\/p>\n

Despite occasional moments when energy disruptions became starkly visible\u2014such as the 1973 OPEC oil embargo or disasters like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill\u2014energy\u2019s invisibility has persisted in shaping our understanding of modernity. The climate crisis has brought greater attention to energy\u2019s role, revealing not just how hydrocarbons have\u00a0fueled<\/em>\u00a0capitalist modernity, but also how it was built on a depoliticized view of energy, with much of its history, politics and violence remaining obscured. The increased visibility of energy, however, doesn\u2019t necessarily lead\u2014despite the assumptions of some activist groups\u2014to an inevitable transition toward a \u2018sustainable use of energy\u2019. Some of these activists have often embraced an apolitical understanding of energy and transitions, aligning with a global hegemonic discourse on sustainable development that frames the transition in overly-simplified terms. Firstly, this discourse reduces the transition to a mere switch between fossil fuels and \u201crenewable\u201d energy, as if swapping sources could fully address the complex nature and relationship of energy and capitalist modernity. Secondly, it fosters a critique of energy infrastructure without grappling with the transition project itself\u2014overlooking how this shift impacts not only material and territorial configurations but also the diverse knowledge systems, worldviews, and practices that will be affected. Finally, this narrative presents the energy transition \u2013now increasingly \u2018just\u2019\u2013 as a global humanitarian mission capable of solving the climate crisis, inadvertently setting the stage for new rounds of colonial expansion, resource grabs, and extractive practices under the guise of improvement, adaptation, sustainability and\/or climate mitigation.<\/p>\n

In simple terms, the hegemonic framing of the energy transition\u2014including variations like the \u201cjust energy transition\u201d or \u201cenergy justice\u201d and \u201cenergy security\u201d\u2014often reaffirms rather than challenges the core tenets of capitalist modernity: sustained economic growth, a narrow and linear definition of progress, and a mentality that separates and puts culture over nature. The energy transition models promoted by international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), International Energy Agency (IEA), and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as Larry Lohmann (2024) points out, focus more on reducing atmospheric CO\u2082 levels than on addressing the industrial production and global accumulation systems that cause these emissions in the first place. Despite numerous reports from these institutions celebrating record-breaking adoption rates of \u201crenewable\u201d energy and the growing number of electric vehicles globally, there is no substantial evidence that a true transition\u2014by their own definitions\u2014is underway. The increased integration of renewable sources has yet to meaningfully shift the global dependency on fossil fuels. Paradoxically, most activists and NGOs continue down this path, advocating for a global energy transition while often overlooking the need for a deeper reexamination of how energy is conceptualized. This oversight reinforces problematic narratives, such as framing Indigenous, peasant, worker, and other subaltern groups as \u2018regressive\u2019 or \u2018selfish\u2019 for resisting \u201crenewable energy\u201d projects on their lands, thereby obscuring the reimposition of colonial dynamics under the green facade of the transition. Other problematic narratives include the formulation of \u2018renewable energy\u2019 and renewability itself, which not only obscures the fossilized dependency of low-carbon infrastructure such as solar and wind, but also fails to account for the new mining frontiers required to sustain this process (Dunlap, 2024) as we discuss below.<\/p>\n

The concept of energy, with its thermodynamic and spatiotemporal implications\u00a02)<\/a><\/sup>, has made \u201cwork\u201d the primary measure of value. By mobilizing nature, workers, women, and subaltern classes as sources of labor, energy has historically served as a justification for imperial incursions into what is framed as \u201cwasted\u201d or \u201cuntapped\u201d lands\u2014spaces deemed to have potential for productive work. This drive to accumulate capital aligns seamlessly with imperial and extractive frameworks that reimagine certain spaces as \u201cempty\u201d or Terra Nullius, effectively erasing the biocultural complexity of these places in favor of a simplified notion of work. As anthropologist Anna Tsing (2015) argues, this process entails a profound alienation, wherein entities are abstracted from their contexts, becoming isolated and thus more easily commodified. Such alienation brings significant violence to both people and places with it, requiring an erasure of local knowledge and practices and a reduction of these areas to mere \u201cpotential.\u201d This creates sacrifice zones, as the true uses of these landscapes\u2014their ontological and epistemological dimensions\u2014are rendered obstacles to capitalist aims. Forests, rivers, and entire landscapes are thus \u201cput to work\u201d by either extracting and alienating the energy \u2018sources\u2019 form their socioecological context or by absorbing the violent impacts of energy infrastructure and their \u2018waste\u2019 \u2013including emissions, materials, toxifications, expulsions and dispossession resulting from the apparently unquestionable \u2018need\u2019 of millions of solar panels, batteries, turbine blades, and rotors\u2014required for a global energy transition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 1: Energy and its relationship to work. \u201cThe Industry\u201d by Richard Roland Holst.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is no surprise then that energy has become a key driver of landscape transformation worldwide, reshaping spatial and temporal dimensions across various geographies. Capitalism\u2019s relentless pursuit of perpetual economic growth, coupled with an increasing demand for energy, has turned attention toward \u2018new\u2019 extractive frontiers as the era of cheap energy\u2014characterized by abundant, easily accessible fossil fuels\u2014draws to a close. This shift signals a threshold marked by a need to sustain our high-energy modernity with less abundant energy sources (i.e. moving from fossil fuels to \u2018renewable energy\u2019). A process that paradoxically also increases the amount of energy required (or invested) to maintain it. Consequently, capitalism, along with its supporting structures of global supply chains, finance, and logistics, is being propelled toward a frontier reconfiguration to supply these energy flows. The world is believed to have passed its conventional oil production between 2005 and 2011, heralding a new era marked by \u2018the end of cheap energy\u2019 and an ever-increasing demand driving the expansion of mining for so-called \u201ccritical\u201d or \u201ctransition\u201d minerals, opening up new extraction sites across the globe; enclosing vast areas of otherwise arable, inhabitable or common places, for wind and solar projects, and relying on more and more harmful or unproven techniques like \u2018fracking\u2019 or deepsea mining highlighting the uneven socioecological costs of this so-called \u2018energy transition\u2019 (Riofrancos, 2022).\u00a03)<\/sup>\u00a0As Figure 2 clearly states, there is no energy transition taking place, only an addition of \u2018new\u2019 sources that continues to maintain the apparently unending-drive for more and more energy embedded in capitalist modernity.<\/p>\n

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Figure 2: There is no energy \u2018transition\u2019 only an addition. Source: https:\/\/ourworldindata.org\/energy-production-consumption<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

As the Global North pursues \u201cdecarbonization,\u201d these impacts are felt worldwide, particularly in the Global South. The transition to an individualized form of electromobility and renewable energy (primarily wind and solar) in Europe and the USA has accelerated new mining frontiers, reconfiguring global geopolitics around resources like lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, silicon, and other rare earth elements. This shift is also intensifying a new Cold War dynamic with China, steering Western interests toward \u201cfriend-shoring\u201d or \u201cnearshoring\u201d as a means of securing access to these resources. In this scramble, mining companies are hastily pushing into uncharted territories like deep-sea mining, branding it a\u00a0https:\/\/impossiblemetals.com\/blog\/sustainable-seabed-mining-to-extract-100-trillion-metal-reserves\/<\/a>\u00a0despite its potentially\u00a0https:\/\/deep-sea-conservation.org\/key-threats\/<\/a>. At the same time, billionaires are promoting visions of colonizing Mars or the Moon, raising questions about whether (\u201cgreen\u201d) capitalism can survive or even transcend Earth\u2019s planetary limits, while activists and NGOs continue to advocate for a somewhat empty formulation of a \u2018just energy transition\u2019 that often translates into a re-formulation of the old colonial notion that was already embedded in the development enterprise: a perpetual \u2018need\u2019 for energy that remains unquestionable (Illich, 2010) as the debate centers on\u00a0alternatives forms of<\/em>\u00a0rather than\u00a0alternatives to<\/em>\u00a0the energy and this hegemonic and corporate-led form of transition.<\/p>\n

The discourse surrounding the visibility of energy has evolved significantly. After a period of neoliberalism in which energy was sidelined, it has since resurfaced under the banners of \u201cscarcity,\u201d \u201csecurity,\u201d and \u201csustainability\u201d\u2014often justifying new imperial incursions, increasingly authoritarian policies, and colonial-extractivist strategies to secure land access. Yet, there remains something peculiar about how we understand \u201cenergy.\u201d Scholars have tended to assume that all people and societies throughout history have shared a fundamental drive for ever-increasing energy supplies, measured in kilowatt-hours (Lohmann, 2024). This perspective not only distorts historical realities but also reveals the colonial biases embedded in our concept of energy. As Ivan Illich (2009) suggests, the concept of energy as we know it would have been incomprehensible to people before 1800. What we now define as energy\u2014the capacity to do work\u2014was shaped by a colonial, patriarchal, and imperial history that sought to make work measurable and comparable across different domains: human labor, natural processes, reproductive work, and more. Thus, the concept of energy embodies a largely concealed history of colonialism, patriarchy, extractivism, and imperialism.<\/p>\n

Terms like \u201cenergy transition\u201d and \u201cenergy justice\u201d are now frequently used by activists and academics, often without fully addressing the complex implications of these concepts. Addressing the colonial roots of energy itself is a quite challenge; it requires recognizing not only the colonial underpinnings of energy\u2019s origins but also the metabolic, thermodynamic, and spatiotemporal reconfigurations that energy systems entail, along with the conflicts surrounding what these so-called energy transitions involve. Environmental, energy, and climate justice activists have scrambled to respond to these issues. Some continue to advocate for the simplistic notion of \u201cgreen growth,\u201d hoping to achieve \u201cNet-Zero\u201d through decoupling economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions and material footprints\u2014despite substantial evidence debunking this possibility (see Figure 3)\u2014and by relying on accounting mechanisms like carbon markets and offsetting or on speculative, often risky technologies, such as climate geoengineering, which are themselves energy-intensive. Alternatively, other groups advocate for a more critical approach to the energy transition by questioning how energy is used, by whom, and for what purposes. Many of these groups\u2014grassroots organizations, community-based initiatives, and other place-based practices rooted in solidarity and mutual aid\u2014are fighting for territorial autonomy and resisting a capitalist system now repackaged as \u201cgreen,\u201d \u201cclean,\u201d or \u201csustainable.\u201d They expose the (neo)colonial dynamics embedded in this form of transition, framing their resistance around broader goals such as autonomy, self-determination, dignity, and well-being. Concepts like \u201cenergy sovereignty,\u201d \u201cenergy democracy,\u201d \u201cenergy autonomy,\u201d and even \u201cenergy insurrections\u201d capture these struggles, emphasizing that energy is not merely a resource or a right but a relational concept shaped by social, ecological, and political contexts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 3: Shows the increase in greenhouse gas emissions with respect to the different international climate summits. Source.\u00a0https:\/\/theconversation.com\/cop27-what-to-expect-193556<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Making energy \u201cstrange\u201d involves rejecting the temporal frameworks imposed by industrial capitalism on the concept of energy transitions. This approach challenges the simplified dichotomies that currently dominate activism\u2014such as fossil fuel versus renewable energy\u2014and calls for an acknowledgment of the metabolic and spatiotemporal dimensions that a true energy transition would entail. Such a shift highlights the proliferation of (green) sacrifice zones, which spatially and temporally displace costs while perpetuating a \u201csavior\u201d or humanitarian narrative around climate adaptation and mitigation. Within the Global\u00a0Tapestry<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Alternatives<\/a>\u00a0(GTA), this discussion has also remained on the periphery. For years, activists, land defenders, and grassroots struggles often overlooked energy as a critical point of contention, relegating it primarily to the domain of state policy and administration. Recently, some movements have begun to call for the recognition of energy as a human right, a process that is problematic, to say the least. This proposal risks resembling a call for \u201cjust colonialism\u201d by encoding colonial structures within the framework of human rights. Is this the direction we want to pursue? Movements are justified in questioning this, as it is clearly not the intended goal; so, what is? The aim, we believe, is to open up discussions on energy\u2019s colonial origins and, from there, develop a new language that enables us to critically engage with energy itself. This periodical seeks to make the concept of energy \u201cstrange.\u201d Put differently, to truly understand the coloniality of energy, we must first open up the question of what energy is, how we approach it, and what its deeper implications are (M\u00fcller, 2024).<\/p>\n

Our aim with this periodical is to highlight cases that challenge the technical and hegemonic framing of energy.<\/strong>\u00a0While several contributions of this periodical are still dealing with some of the challenges brought about by capitalist modernity and its colonial formulation of what energy is, some of the contributions are now focusing on challenging this hegemonic formulation of energy which insists on reducing it to a \u2018thing\u2019 and to understand it in relational terms, that is, to see energy, like all entities that make up the world, as not having an intrinsic, separate existence by itself (Escobar, 2020). Movements and alternatives around the world are denouncing green extractivism, the use of energy projects to dispossess communities of their territories, and the forced \u201cmodernization\u201d of their poverty to meet the unrealistic standards of global decarbonization. Most of these alternatives see the energy transition for what it truly is\u2014a colonial framework designed to uphold the same principles that have driven capitalism for the past 500 years. In response, alternatives across the world are reconceptualizing energy as a key concern and as part of their struggles for autonomy. The issue extends beyond access, equity, and sustainability; it\u2019s about the deeper implications embedded within the language of rights, justice, and transition. These concepts reflect a specific vision of energy, one typically focused on minimizing \u201cnegative consequences\u201d without addressing the underlying institutional and social systems that perpetuate them: the reliance on industrialism and extractivism, the exploitation of nature and social reproductive labor, and the persistent use of colonial forms of domination.<\/p>\n

Our hope is that this periodical engages with some of the key questions and concerns that might animate a more relational, convivial, decolonial and radical approach to understand what energy is and how an energy transition might be imagined, designed and implemented far away form the technocratic and hegemonic formulations of these concepts\/processes. We of course do not see this periodical as a \u2018final\u2019 word on the issue, but part of an emerging set of praxis\/thinking that allows us, like the zapatistas, to walk as we continue to ask questions. We invite you to read this periodical and to ask these questions with us.<\/p>\n

References<\/h3>\n

Cederl\u00f6f, G. (2024). Energy as an object and relation: Thermodynamics, space, and emergent energy geographies. Geoforum, 150: 103968.<\/p>\n

Dunlap, A. (2024). This system is killing us. Land Grabbing, the Green Economy and Ecological Conflict. London: Pluto Press.<\/p>\n

Escobar, A. (2020). Pluriversal Politics. Durham: Duke University Press.<\/p>\n

Franquesa, J. (2018). Power Struggles. Dignity, Value, and the Renewable Energy Frontier in Spain. New York: Indiana University Press<\/p>\n

Illich, I. (2009). The Social Construction of Energy. Harvard Gazzette, 13-21.https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2009\/11\/landscapes-of-energy\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Illich, I. (2010). \u2018Needs\u2019 in. Sachs, W. (Ed.) The Development Dictionary. A Guide to Knowledge as Power. (pp:95-110). New York: Zed Books.<\/p>\n

Lohmann, L. (2024). Provincializing energy transitions. The Journal of Political Ecology, 31: 1-13.<\/p>\n

Muller, F. (2024). Energy Colonialism. Journal of Political Ecology, 31: 701-717.<\/p>\n

Riofrancos, T. (2022). The Security\u2013Sustainability Nexus: Lithium Onshoring in the Global North. Global Environmental Politics, 23(1): 20-41.<\/p>\n

Tsing, A. (2015). The Mushroom at the End of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.<\/p>\n

1)<\/sup>Carlos Tornel, Christine Dann, Vasna Ramasar, Shrishtee Bajpai, Franco Augusto and Mugdha Trifaley<\/p>\n

2)<\/sup>As Gustav Cederl\u00f6f (2024) reminds us, energy must be understood in spatial, temporal, and thermodynamic terms. Different forms of energy reshape how space is conceptualized and used, influencing the rhythms of work, production, and social reproduction. As energy and resources flow from one place to another, the character and function of these spaces transform, altering how people experience and relate to their surroundings. For instance, energy extracted from solar panels in a peripheral region to power a major city shifts these dynamics of both places. The thermodynamic aspect underscores how certain places can be conceptualized as energy\u00a0sources<\/em>\u00a0and others as\u00a0sinks<\/em>, revealing how energy and material flows simultaneously create zones of affluence and \u201csacrifice zones\u201d that sustain them. Ultimately, energy is not merely a \u201cthing\u201d but a relation, shaped by capitalism\u2019s relentless drive for greater energy\/material demand.<\/p>\n

3)<\/sup>Paradoxically, as\u00a0https:\/\/pure.iiasa.ac.at\/id\/eprint\/16764\/1\/1-s2.0-S0959378020307512-main.pdf<\/a>, in reality there is no need to increase the global supply of energy production. We could, taking the projected growth of the global population by 2050, meet their basic needs with only a third of the energy produced in 2020. In other words, our main problem has to do with the way energy use is distributed and how capitalism depends on\u00a0https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0048969721064378<\/a>\u00a0to sustain itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For too long, discussions about energy have been confined to the realms of technicians and engineers. The energy we consume and the infrastructures sustaining its seemingly endless supply\u2014whether fossil fuels or electricity\u2014have largely remained out of sight and out of mind for much of modern history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128238,"featured_media":3515708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79716,213529,79718,79720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3515678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-energy-featured","category-environment","category-society"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3515678"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3515709,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515678\/revisions\/3515709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3515708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3515678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3515678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3515678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}