(Photo by Bureau of Land Management via Flickr/CC BY 2.0)
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The world needs an energy transition due to the climate change caused by C02 emissions from fossil fuels. Renewable energy sources like solar panels, wind turbines, hydropower, and geothermal energy make this transition possible. However, many of these resources and places intended for green energy are often homes to Indigenous people and people of colour.
An example of this is in the state of Washington, where developers are planning a new project for renewable energy storage that would harm traditional land uses of the tribes in the area of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The project creates a dilemma as the use of the land comes at a risk to the people living there.
There has been a historical trend where land use for energy resources becomes a source of pollution, harming the people living there. Renewable energy will mean different extraction processes and timelines. As such, decisions on land usage for renewable energy affect front-line communities just as much as the effects of climate change will. If people do not pursue renewable energy, climate change will dramatically affect front-line communities and force people to move.
Renewable Energy’s Environmental Impact
The search for energy resources has been essential to modern state policies, whether oil pipelines, coal, wood, or alternatives such as renewables and nuclear energy. These resources all require heavy industrial areas to produce energy which can create pollution. This pollution has an impact on the local community where the industry is located. The industry can be positive if it brings jobs, but it can also cause environmental damage and health impacts.
Renewable energy comes with the need for batteries to store electricity. Most current batteries need lithium and other materials, similar to fossil fuels, and require mining or extraction that gives way to environmental damage. For example, lithium mining drastically impacts the environment by releasing toxic substances in mass earth removal, like carcinogenic heavy metals and chemicals used to extract lithium in batteries.
The demand for lithium for batteries needed for energy evolution to renewable sources means that companies are willing to displace Indigenous peoples or go over their heads to extract the resources. Chile’s salt flats, which are areas of deserts where seawater evaporates, leaving behind minerals like salts, for example, affect the Indigenous community in the Chilean Atacama desert. When these minerals are disrupted, they can pollute scarce water resources in the region.
The United States’ southwest homes of Indigenous tribes like the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, Summit Lake Paiute Tribe, and Winnemucca Indian Colony. In this case, the tribes are trying to prevent a mine from being dug on ancestral lands. In the U.S., laws are centered around giving access to mineral rights with minimal recourse for preventing or compensating land use for mining in cases such as this, where Indigenous communities do not have the same level of authority to halt construction that hurts places considered sacred or important. Currently, consultations with the mining companies or responsible government agencies do not carry any weight. With little notice given to the long-term effects of pollution, the occurrence of forcing Indigenous communities off their land for resources, especially energy substances, continues.
Long-Term Land Use
Land use becomes important for the actual use of renewable energy in solar, wind, etc., as renewables have a longer lifespan compared to fossil fuel use. As singular turbines or panels are replaced, the energy can continue to be produced. With wind and solar, the impact on the land around it is minimal compared to fossil fuel use. Solar panels can be built on buildings, while wind turbines can coexist with farmland, leading to less competition for land usage.
The most significant impact is that people are building new physical objects in areas where nothing might have been built. With most renewable energy projects on a large scale, the land is often leased instead of purchased outright. This practice lets the project develop with less risk, but it may lead to complications when deciding on the actors responsible for managing the project at the end of the lease. In the mining industry, local communities bear the cost of environmental cleanups after mining companies go bankrupt.
For example, in the Navajo Nation, many companies who have built uranium mines along with oil wells have avoided the responsibility to pay for pollution cleanup. As such, land use for renewable energy production must include company responsibilities to protect the environment and communities from damage and a guarantee to manage it responsibly.
Policy Battles and Victories
The most prominent standard for renewable energy land use is the FPIC, which is “Free, prior and informed consent.” The standard, set by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ensures that the project considers the relevant communities and environment it affects and includes strategies to remedy possible issues. FPIC requires that parties have a shared agreement to support the project’s long-term sustainability. The requirement is important in ensuring that future projects do not have the same negative impact previous fossil fuels and other resource projects have had.
The Institute for Human Rights and Business organization reported that the government cancelled a wind energy plan in Mexico proposed by EDF Energy due to a lack of FPIC consultation with the Unión Hidalgo tribe of Zapotec. The company did not consult the tribe before they started working on the project in 2015. After pushback by the Zapotec tribe, EDF attempted to have a consultation process, but it was deemed insufficient. Thus, the federal government ultimately cancelled the project. The event is a historic example of a successful legal challenge from an Indigenous community.
Consequences and Rewards of a Green Future
There is no doubt that renewable energy presents costs in the form of resource extraction and land use. However, the cost of not reducing carbon emissions will be higher still and will affect frontline and Indigenous communities the most. As such, responsibility for ensuring stakeholders like developers are consulting communities is critical for the long-term success of renewable energy. Moving forward, mandating community input and agreements through FPIC and a sincere effort to collaborate with Indigenous communities should be the norm.
Edited by Lubaba Mahmud
