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By Jacobo Ramirez

Climate change is a pressing global issue that requires immediate action. As countries and multinational companies invest in green energy, it’s easy to assume that we’re making ethical choices. However, this is not always the case, green initiatives perpetuate a new form of colonialism, effectively making them green colonialism. Our recent study – Green Colonialism and Decolonial Feminism: A Study of Wayúu Women’s Resistance in La Guajira, uncovers how the rush to renewable energy is affecting Indigenous communities, specifically the Wayúu women in La Guajira, Colombia.

The La Guajira Case

The implementation of Colombia’s Long-Term Climate Strategy E2050 has resulted in the transformation of indigenous territories in the La Guajira region into areas of conflict. The Colombian government and businesses frame this transition as a strategy aimed at offering economic support, with the simultaneous goals of tackling climate change and alleviating poverty. However, it is crucial to recognize that this process is not immune to instances of exploitation, domination, and dispossession experienced by Wayúu communities and their lands. These communities face significant challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, limited access to water and education, and a heightened risk of malnutrition, child malnutrition, and mortality.

Why a Decolonial Feminist Perspective is Important

The present study utilized a decolonial feminist framework to examine the intricate relationship among gender, colonial legacies, and business ethics in the realm of green energy investments. This methodology enables the detection of hidden power dynamics and enhances the representation of Indigenous women, a demographic that often faces marginalization in mainstream discussions pertaining to environmental sustainability. The current study proposes that Wayúu women engage in the practice of feminist decoloniality with the objective of dismantling the concepts of modernity and the rationality linked to the energy transition. For Wayúu women, their place of origin holds a significance that extends beyond mere geographical boundaries. It encompasses a complex amalgamation of cultural, spiritual, and social elements, forming a rich and intricate fabric of their identity. According to a female Wayúu individual, “it is imperative to acknowledge and comprehend the Wayúu people’s perception of their territory in a manner that transcends oversimplification as mere symbolic representations”. This perspective warrants both respect and comprehensive understanding. Decolonial feminists assert the imperative of acknowledging and safeguarding their self-determination to protect their territories.

What Policymakers and Businesses Need to Do

One of the primary findings of our research suggests that it is imperative for the Colombian government to enact the Colombian constitution, which acknowledges the presence and inherent rights of Indigenous communities. This implementation should include the provision of official titles for ancestral lands, encompassing an area that exceeds 25% of Colombia’s territory. To undertake large-scale projects, it is imperative for corporations and governments to establish genuine dialogues that demonstrate respect for the customs and traditional practices of Indigenous communities. It is imperative that these dialogues demonstrate a heightened awareness and consideration for Indigenous ontologies, as well as acknowledge the historical context of colonization that has disproportionately affected these communities. Corporations are obligated to adhere to normative instruments, such as the OECD guidelines, which aim to foster responsible business conduct among multinational enterprises. These guidelines encompass a range of areas including sustainable development, human rights, employment practices, taxation, information disclosure, and anti-corruption measures.

The Grand Challenges Ahead

The research conducted in this study highlights the potential for subsequent studies to integrate decolonial feminism as a theoretical framework for examining Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, specifically in the Global South. Our study proposes that businesses should consider incorporating diverse perspectives beyond the prevailing Western worldview when formulating climate change mitigation actions and corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. By employing this methodology, researchers can gain novel insights into the social justice aspects linked to the transition towards sustainable energy sources.

Concluding Thoughts

Climate change is framed as a global crisis by Western cultures, many of which have been the protagonists of historical colonization. Our research reveals the imperative of giving prominence to Indigenous knowledge and epistemologies within the framework of green transition policy decisions. The transition towards green energy encompasses not only technological and economic aspects, but also entails considerations of human rights, cultural preservation, and ethical governance. The intention of this research is to stimulate a more extensive discourse regarding the methods of transitioning towards a more environmentally sustainable future, while simultaneously upholding the rights and cultural practices of Indigenous communities.

Further Readings

– Banerjee, 2021: Decolonizing Deliberative Democracy: Perspectives from Below

– Fjellheim 2023: You Can Kill Us with Dialogue:” Critical Perspectives on Wind Energy Development in a Nordic-Saami Green Colonial Context

Jacobo Ramirez is an Associate Professor in Latin American Business Development at the Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC), Copenhagen Business School (CBS). He earned his doctoral degree in Business Administration at Newcastle University, England (2005), in collaboration with the Grenoble School of Management, France. His research focus is on sustainable business development in Latin America, a region with security risks, fragile formal institutions and social unrest, among other features, yet also a growing income.

by Rune Møller Stahl

In the past decade, economic inequality has moved from a position of relative marginality to the center of attention for academics, policy professionals, and even major institutions such as the OECD, IMF, and the World Economic Forum at Davos that were an earlier bastion of economic orthodoxy. This transformation has shifted the focus from poverty to economic inequality in many forums, and from looking at social problems at the bottom of income distribution to also looking at the problematic effects of wealth concentration at the top.

The French economist Thomas Piketty is a central figure at the heart of this transformation. His work is a lens through which to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the emerging paradigm of inequality economics.

Piketty’s research on inequality is based on an analysis of historical data on income and wealth distribution in advanced economies, including the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. His central argument put forward primarily in his 2013 book Capital in the 21^st Century, is that in capitalist economies the rate of return on capital is typically higher than the rate of economic growth. This means that over time those who own capital (such as property or stocks) will accumulate more wealth than those who rely on wages or salaries for their income. This dynamic has played out over the last few decades, resulting in a significant increase in income and wealth inequality. For example, in the United States, the top 10% of earners saw their share of national income rise from around 30% in the 1970s to over 50% in recent years. Piketty argues that this trend is unsustainable and poses a threat to social and economic stability in the long term.

Piketty’s work has significant implications for economic policy and the way we think about economic development. It challenges the traditional view that economic growth is the key driver of prosperity and social progress. Piketty argues that economic growth alone is not sufficient to reduce inequality and that policymakers need to focus on measures that promote a more equitable distribution of income and wealth. Piketty’s research also highlights the importance of progressive taxation and redistribution in reducing inequality. He argues that without these measures, the concentration of wealth will continue to increase, leading to social unrest and political instability.

In more recent work, notably Capital and Ideology from 2019, Piketty and his research team broaden the historical and geographic scope of our understanding of inequality by focusing on the profound impact of colonialism on the development of inequality. European colonies of the 18^th and 19^th centuries were among the most unequal societies in the historical record. The slave colonies such as French St Domingue (current day Haiti) and the southern states of the US stand out with extreme levels of inequality in income and wealth. The figure below provides an estimate of the comparative levels of income distribution in France compared to the colonial possessions of Algeria and Haiti in different historical periods.

While Thomas Piketty’s work provides great empirical advances and has greatly widened the spatial and temporal scope of the discussion of economic inequality, his work also points towards some of the limits of the emerging field of inequality economics. When it comes to addressing inequality, his main proposals relate to the use of progressive taxation of wealth and income to redistribute resources from the top to the bottom of the income distribution. However, this points to the issue of power, especially state power. The role and the character of the state are not theorized systematically in Piketty’s work, and the ability of the state to redistribute a large part of national income, especially in the face of opposition from powerful economic forces, does not emerge as a problem.

The issues of state power are exacerbated when it comes to the international level. Problems of international coordination around issues of taxation and spending are massive. There are massive barriers to a proposal of a global wealth tax, which forms a central part of Piketty’s proposal for addressing inequality. This is a dilemma that has been explored extensively in the field of international relations, and further cross-disciplinary dialogue with neighboring disciplines would greatly strengthen the emerging field of inequality economics.

These questions and others are discussed further in my recent Danish language book Introduction til Piketty – ulighed, retfærdighed og demokrati. The book is aimed at teaching at BA and master level, as well as a general audience with an interest in the dynamics of economic inequality.

Rune Møller Stahl is an Assistant Professor in Political Economy at Copenhagen Business School. His research is situated in the field of international political economy with a special focus on the history of economic ideas.

Wayúu Women Leading the Charge: Rethinking Green Energy Investments through a Decolonial Feminist Lens