Environmental conflict and the expansion of renewable energy in Central America
Exploring Canadian participation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7464984 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Simon Granovsky-Larsen (0000-0002-9680-1317, University of Regina, corresponding author), Paulina Larreátegui Benavides (0000-0002-3048-7468, University of Regina) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 192-214 |
| Publication date | 2023-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0826-3663 • E-ISSN: 2333-1461 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/08263663.2023.2166267 |
| OpenAlex | W4319827744 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
As capacity to generate and distribute renewable energy expands across Central America, environmental conflict is on the rise, with communities confronting dispossession of water and territory. Renewable energy holds a central position within the extractivist economic model in the region, but little is known about the involvement of Canada in Central American renewable energy sectors. This paper addresses that gap by asking what role Canada plays within a scenario of expanding and conflictual renewable energy projects across Central America. We combine Canadian public records with data from projects, including GeoComunes and the Environmental Justice Atlas, to analyze 726 renewable energy and 162 traditional extractive projects in Central America, and to connect 156 of these projects to evidence of conflict with surrounding communities. While Canadian private companies own very few renewable energy projects in Central America, we argue that this does not imply an absence of Canadian involvement. Instead, the paper explores Canadian participation at multilateral venues, support for energy projects by the federal government, and the benefits that renewable energy expansion presents to the Canadian private sector. The invisibility of the Canadian presence in Central American renewable energy, we suggest, serves to obscure Canadian responsibility for a scenario defined by high levels of conflict
Business · Central government · Economics · Economy · Energy policy · Energy subsidies · Environmental justice · Environmental protection · Feed-in tariff · Geography · Government (linguistics · Invisibility · Local government · Natural resource economics · Political science · Renewable energy · Energy and Environment Impacts · Mining and Resource Management · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Ecology · Law · Public Administration
Power Shift
Extractivisms
América Central en el mercado de emisiones
Colonial Extractions
Ixil Maya Resistance against Megaprojects in Cotzal, Guatemala
La transnacionalización de los grupos empresariales diversificados y el rostro cambiante de las élites económicas centroamericanas
Social mobilisation and violence at the mining frontier
Violence in environmental conflicts
The Global Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas)
The Global Political Ecology of the Clean Development Mechanism
Human rights and the Clean Development Mechanism
From the Streets to the Chamber
Blended financing, Canadian foreign aid policy, and alternatives
Renewable Energy and Human Rights Violations
Diplomacy at a Canadian Mine Site in Guatemala
Political Parties and Canadian Climate Change Policy
Proyectos hidroeléctricos y resistencias comunitarias en defensa de los ríos en Costa Rica
Resistance, repression and elite dynamics
Protestas contra la minería en Guatemala. ¿Qué papel juegan las élites en los conflictos
Accumulation by Decarbonization and the Governance of Carbon Offsets
Neoextractivismo, megaproyectos y conflictividad en Guatemala y Nicaragua
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |