If It's Not Feminist, It's Not Just. - Foei

What is wrong with the current energy system? 02This pattern has its historical roots in colonialism, and it is currentlymaintained by the neocolonial, neoliberal, and extractivist globalpolitical economy.2[“The world’s major powers understood early on that access toand control over fossil energy – its exploration, extraction, andprocessing stages – means being able to pull many strings onthe world stage. Bloody wars have been fought in the pastdecades to secure access to oil and gas. Coups have beeninstigated, democracies have fallen over it (or never got achance to flourish), dictatorships have been able to maintainthemselves over it. Placing one s nation centre stage in thefossil chain means one can strengthen the national economy(as energy access is crucial to building strong economies), butit also fosters dominance over other countries through energydependence – a dominance, which can then be exploited forother political purposes. This is what fossil geopolitics hasalways been about. This is why fossil giants sleep in the samebed as political giants. And this is something that will be –and is – happening again when it comes to the raw materialsand minerals needed for the energy transition.”Isabelle Geuskens, Milieudefensie / Friends of the Earth Netherlands.Such dynamics are advanced by drivers of the dirty energy system.One of the major drivers of this broken, unjust system aretransnational corporations (TNCs). Backed by the law and itsmultiple instruments (such as profit-sharing agreements, freetrade agreements and bilateral treaties), they are ensuredunlimited access to energy sources and continued impunity fortheir human rights’ violations and environmental abuses. Theiractions are usually backed by states, who repeatedly abandon theirredistributive functions to act as enablers of private interests.Some states promote fossil fuel-related imperialism. Other statesprovide financial support to dirty energy projects – such as fossilfuel or large hydro-dam projects – through their export creditagencies (ECAs), using public finance mechanisms to push dirtyenergy and worsen climate change, even if this is against the ParisAgreement principles which countries say they adhere to at home.States have also often mobilised their police or military to ensurethat dirty energy projects will go ahead, even if there is opposition.This deepens their dependence on extractivist revenues, ultimatelypromoting predatory development models that do not challengewho has access to and/or control over land.world’sr i c h e st1%produce twice as much carbon pollutionas thepooresthalfThe richest one percent of the world’s populationare responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollutionas the 3.1 billion people who make up the poorest halfof humanity over a 250-year period of unprecedentedemissions growth.Oxfam’s report Confronting Carbon Inequality, September 2020.Additionally, many states subscribe to the overall neoliberaltendency towards energy privatisation and liberalisation, turningenergy into a commodity and yet another sphere of profitmaximisation. This leads to unequal and inequitable access toenergy. For instance, while approximately 600 million people allover the world do not have reliable access to energy,3 in manyplaces, only the rich minority can afford to find individual solutionsto avoid using dirty energy, for example, expensive solar panels.Mutually reinforcing systemic oppressions also shape the currentenergy system. Global elites and countries in the Global Northbenefit from energy-intensive lifestyles, while most of the impactsof the current energy system are felt in the Global South.The sexual division of labour4 and environmental racism have ledwomen in the Global South, as well as black people and people ofcolour, Indigenous groups and rural communities, to bedisproportionately impacted by destructive energy sources. Africais still mostly rural, although rapid urbanisation exists. In theserural areas, the majority are peasant women farmers. This meanswomen are fundamentally tied to the lands. Because of genderrules, we tend to be the ones who cook, farm, fetch water, gatherwood, tend to the sick it is these sorts of roles and connectionsto the land that make us the stewards of the land.“It is important to frame the discourse on Just Transition around developmentalism because many policies and programmes arepackaged as anti-poverty initiatives, rather than capitalist ventures. Once framed this way, it becomes difficult to argue with them;this is why many movements against large-scale projects are branded as anti-development. You could say that developmentalismis like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Similarly, sustainable development is a handmaiden to neoliberal fundamentalism.”Maya Quirino, LRC / Friends of the Earth Philippines.6

friends of the earth internationalIf It’s Not Feminist, It’s Not Just.“When resources and land are grabbed by big dirtycorporations, impacts are most deeply felt by women, andwhat makes it worse is that we have this very closeconnection to land; our role is the connection to the land, butwe do not own the land. We tend not to own the landbecause of patriarchy, and it is unfortunately men – who donot work on the land – who own the lands.”[Trusha Reddy, WoMin Africa.The legacy of toxic and radioactive contamination left by fossil fueland uranium development in some areas of (our) Indigenous landsremains to this day. Toxic facilities, mines, and electrical generationfacilities, including coal-fired power plants, nuclear power, andmega-hydro dams, pulp, and paper mills, and toxic smelters, havehad devastating health, social, environmental, ecological andcultural impacts on Indigenous peoples and lands, at all stages ofthe energy cycle. For example toxic and heavy metal contaminationhas caused cancer from radioactive mining waste and processingand many people suffer from respiratory illness caused by airemissions from coal-fired power plants, oil refinery, oil and gaswells, and now hydraulic fracturing.5The fossil fuel economy has led to multiple negative impacts onpeasants, fisherfolk, rural communities and women: loss of land,water, and livelihoods; pollution, deforestation, and biodiversity loss;destruction of local economies and introduction of export-orientedeconomies; (gender-specific) health damage. These impacts areaccompanied by the exploitation of women’s work and bodies, andgender-based violence perpetrated by the police, military and armedguards or groups as well as in the home and community.“In Mozambique, coal companies opened up coal mines.There was a relocation of families, and the women were moreimpacted: they feed the family, they plant food. Especiallyrural women, because that is where fossil fuel explorationleads to a loss of livelihood, land, water.In the province of Tete, the relocation houses were terrible,people couldn’t live well because of the hot weather. Therewas no transportation to the market, the land was far away– women had to walk, even sleep far away, to have access totheir fields. Small kids, daughters, stopped going to schoolbecause of the risks since there was no transportation, andthey suffered harassment on the way to school. Finally, thehusbands go to mines and have other families, leaving thewomen alone with the kids. And the government supports it.”“Anabela Lemos, Justiça Ambiental JA! / Friends of the Earth Mozambique. 7

What is wrong with the current energy system? 02People in the Global South are also more likely to be affected byenergy poverty, which is the absence of sufficient energy to ensurepeople’s well-being and dignity. In this sense, there is a cleardivision between those who benefit the most and those who paythe biggest price for the world’s current energy model. Too oftenthe presence of natural resources leads to a resource curse –resulting in poverty (including energy poverty), loss of land,militarisation, violence and corruption.[“Oil was not a blessing. Oil revenue never returned to peopleas promised. The land was taken from them withoutcompensation. No compensation has been paid. Even thoughit is women who are farming the land, they don’t have accessto compensation. In the town hall, women don’t enter. Theyhave no voice in the community – men are speaking for them.This is challenging. Women are part of the community andhave to speak out! Let men know they are there.Women are suffering from miscarriage, skin problems.Drinking water is polluted with benzene. Sicknesses thathappen in the community are not common in Nigeria butthey are getting worse day-by-day. One woman lost her twochildren because of the pollution. She lives close to theextraction place.No access to land, no access to anything in the community.Women in the Niger Delta depend on the environment, andwhen you take the environment from women there isnothing left! The mangrove is polluted. Seafood is gone, theyused to depend on that. But now there is nothing.”Keziah Okpojo, ERA / Friends of the Earth Nigeria.Race, gender, class, and heteronormativity6 also have a relevanthistorical and continued role in structuring our societies7 andshaping access to the benefits of this ultimately undemocraticenergy system. That is, the closer one is to the white, upper class,heterosexual and nuclear family in the Global North, the less likelythey are to suffer from energy poverty and from the consequencesof the interconnected energy and climate crisis.8 “The fossils industry, some studies argue, is structurallyviolent. Firstly, the impact on the environment is devastating.Levelling forests, digging deep into the earth – these arephysically violent acts that disfigure, even effectively kill,landscapes. But in poorer nations, and in indigenous lands,in particular, large scale “development” projects, whichincludes extractivist regimes like coal and metallic mineralsmining, are such bloody enterprises. They dividecommunities, and environmental defenders are intimidated,harassed, or killed. The experience of violence of IndigenousPeoples and poor rural communities, including women, is wellknown. This subjects Indigenous peoples to invasive projectsthat last for decades. Can you imagine living in the midst ofthat thing that you haven’t signed off on and whichcontradicts everything you believe in? That is painful.”“Maya Quirino, LRC / Friends of the Earth Philippines.

friends of the earth internationalIf It’s Not Feminist, It’s Not Just.03Neither just, nor feminist:false solutionsJust as women know from personal and collective experience ofthe injustices of the fossil energy system, transitioning to arenewable energy (RE) system does not automatically lead to a justtransition. Left unaddressed, the historic and systemic injusticeson which the fossil system relies will repeat themselves asrenewable energy expands.Women activists do not question that the climate crisis urges usto make a swift transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies.But, this transition can only provide a lasting and just solution if itaddresses the many injustices that have resulted from the currentclimate crisis. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes again.However, as the ongoing systemic crises unfold, the narratives aboutsustainability and transitions are being increasingly appropriatedby multiple sectors. Not all of them are committed to socioenvironmental justice, nor the dismantling of systemic oppressions.Indeed, their actions can end up deepening systemic injusticesembedded in the current energy system and ultimately turn energytransition into business as usual. We call them unjust transitions,to emphasise how this can contribute to worsening socioenvironmental injustice. In this section we will consider how theseunjust transitions reinforce existing problems.Of special concern are initiatives tainted by greenwashingand purplewashing.8 These terms are used when statesand corporations paint their actions as environmentalistand feminist, while continuing to place profits above thelives of the majority of the people, advancing environmentaldestruction and reinforcing patriarchy. Both greenwashingand purplewashing are already found in the fieldof the energy transition.Extractivism and Greenwashing:business as usualSome states have been mobilising the narrative of energytransition and legitimate public concern about the environment tojustify new investments and policy shifts.[“The Department of Energy of the Philippines has recently[and unexpectedly] announced that it will be imposing amoratorium on coal. The pandemic has brought into sharprelief the unreliability and inflexibility of coal. Exxon Mobil’sstocks plunged amid the pandemic, for example Globally,we cannot, of course, discount the also genuine desire topursue ecological solutions, especially with manygovernments and even corporations waking up to the climatecrisis. The paradigm shift (from fossil fuels use to renewables)has been considerable, considering how recent climatechange has become part of the public discourse. However, theshift to renewables must also not perpetuate neoliberalfundamentalism. Renewables might just end up merelypowering the same exploitative and destructivearrangements that fossil fuels support. The shift torenewables must be in parallel to a dramatic shift topathways that don’t value nature or exploit labor purely forprofit. China has very shrewdly invested in coal as well as inrenewables. Under its Belt and Road Initiative it is lendingmoney to poorer nations in Asia for renewable projects whichinvolve Chinese contractors leading or helping to carry outapproved projects in response to a saturated domestic(Chinese) market. Again, this illustrates that the shift torenewables carries within it the risk for renewables toperpetuate the same predatory arrangements.”Maya Quirino, LRC / Friends of the Earth Philippines. 9

Neither just, nor feminist: false solutions 03The massive switch from fossil to renewable energy and storagerequires raw materials and minerals, extracted from the earththrough mining. Mining is a sector known for its environmentaldamage and many human rights abuses. The mining sector fuelstax evasion, corruption and violent conflict, particularly in theGlobal South. Forced labour and slavery (including childexploitation), as well as gender-based violence (such as forcedprostitution and sexual violence), are often linked to mining sites,which can turn into conflict zones as environmental and humanrights defenders, often women, expose the injustices of the miningsector and are often targeted by company and governmental forcesthat do not wish to see their interests undermined.“These solar projects are entirely about providing energy forthe Global North and not about providing energy access forthe Global South. It is essentially a project still operating underold extractivist and colonial ideas of energy, even if the projectis ‘renewable’. Also, the issue is about the energy system. Ifhuge land grabs take place for solar energy and dispossess localcommunities, this is not justice. If we don’t question, what isthe energy for, this is not justice. As we say in Portuguese,“energia para que e para quem”. We need to question whatthe energy is used for, not just how it is produced.”Many of the renewable energy resources are located on indigenousterritories and ecosensitive areas. Their extraction uses massiveamounts of energy, water, materials and land. Mining-relatedchemicals severely pollute land, air and water, leaving behindtremendous damage to the environment and to species andpeople s health. On a human level, current mining practices oftenmean that communities are faced with land grabbing, loss ofincome and loss of access to their territories.Dipti Bhatnagar and Sara Shaw, Friends of the Earth International.It is these sites where neocolonial, ecological and gender injusticesinterlink. The energy transition, which so many people hope willbring an end to decades of fossil injustice, could therefore easily leadus on another race to the bottom. Already some of the world’s majoreconomic powers are deeply concerned about supply risks and howthis will affect their strategic autonomy. Some of the most vitalmetals for transition to renewable energy are only available in alimited number of countries – most of them already economicallydependent on resource extraction. This includes countries that donot uphold human rights or where the presence of minerals hasfostered widespread corruption and violent conflict.Without North-South equity and gender justice firmly integrated inthe transition, rich countries will once again impose perpetual“development” and poverty status to the rest of the world, despitethe many resources these areas may hold. Women will once morebear the brunt of the crises – dispossessed from access to land andwater, locked into lives without access to education, decent labour,property rights, sexual and reproductive rights or proper healthcare.Several women activists shared examples of how “clean” energy isbeing appropriated to sustain yet another wave of dispossessions.It is already the case in North Africa, where solar plants in Tunisia(TuNur Solar Project) and Morocco (Ouarzazate Solar Plant) areexamples of energy colonialism and the so-called greengrabbing.9In the case of Ouarzazate, the project was:[“Installed on the land of Amazigh agro-pastoralistcommunities without their approval and consent. Second,this mega-project is controlled by private interests and hasbeen financed through US 9 billion worth of debt.”Hamza Hamouchene, Algeria Solidarity Campaign.10 “Corporations are also greenwashing their projects andinvestments. Transnationals have a long history of investingresources to deflect the social and environmental damage theycause from their perpetual search for maximising profits.10Attempts to wash away corporate action from corporate harm havetaken varied formats throughout history. Some well-knownexamples are initiatives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), inwhich capitalist market problems are claimed to be solvable bycapitalist market remedies.11For corporations in the dirty energy sector this can includefinancing theatre companies,12 education projects,13 or evenprojects claiming concern over climate change.14 The list is longand, for those committed to systemic change, it speaks to the needto understand how the radical anti-capitalist agenda of strugglesis being appropriated and commodified.Greenwashing is being used by dirty energy companies in at leasttwo ways. First, as outlined above, by investments in so-called“environmental sustainability projects” at the local level.15 Theseinvestments try to build an image of dirty energy corporations asbeing environmentally responsible. Secondly, they also promote agreen economy that does not fundamentally challenge thesystemic oppressions that are at the core of the fossil economy, andare perpetuating harm to communities and workers.[“Green jobs and green technologies are leading to theappropriation of our proposals and corporate capture! Theytalk about green jobs as a solution for the energy crisis, butwithout talking about the forms of production. They use theexisting concerns on the part of the workers, but they maintainthe production model that we are criticising from our point ofview. We need to transform the model: green jobs and purplesolutions are not enough!”Lyda Fernanda Forero, Centro Sindical de las Américas.

friends of the earth internationalIf It’s Not Feminist, It’s Not Just.A particularly dangerous partnership is that of greenwashedenergy transition and the digital economy.“In the Netherlands, huge renewable energy parks (wind parks)are being built, often near living areas, generating anenormous amount of renewable energy. But this does notmean that this energy is automatically generated for thepeople living nearby, nor Dutch citizens in general. More andmore we hear that the renewable energy goes to big datacompanies, who increasingly come to the Netherlands as theyuse these parks for energy to store their data, under a ‘greenbanner of using renewable energy’.”States and corporations use greenwashing and appropriate thetransition narrative to serve their market and geopolitical interests.Additionally, they rely on technical solutions that are fals

If It's Not Feminist, It's Not Just. Foreword Just and FEMINIST Energy Transition: elements for the debate. In the last decade, the Just Transition rhetoric has become part of the global discussion around addressing climate change, but yet again the "Just" in Just Transition is failing to address the systemic