Climate change solutions must resist colonialism

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Some renewable energy programs green imperialism and leave the system intact, writes Martin Empson

Twenty years ago, I and other activists attended a climate conference in London.

During one of the workshops, there was an unforgettable presentation on renewable energy. The audience was impressed to hear that very large solar panels in the Sahara Desert in North Africa could sustainably produce energy across Europe.

But we were deceived. We were encouraged to support imperialism’s greenwashing.

Recently I saw several socialists and friends share a meme with a similar argument. It is said that the North African sun can energize the world.

As the world warms, it’s understandable that activists are drawn to arguments showing how technology solves climate change.

But these solutions perpetuate colonialism – they ignore the needs and interests of the people living in the region. They replicate existing relationships that have impoverished the Global South.

The recent book Dismantling Green Colonialism, edited by Hamza Hamouchene and Katie Sandwell, highlights this well. It shows how the Gulf states have become specialists in greening themselves to justify their continued dominance as providers of fossil fuel energy.

Israel has used green energy to assert its existence among oil-rich Arab nations.

The Desertec 3.0 plan aims to create global renewable energy in desert regions. Hamza writes that “this fits into the program of consolidating fortress Europe and expanding the inhumane border regime of imperialism, while trying to exploit the potential of cheap energy in North Africa, which is also based on undervalued and disciplined labor.” These types of plans are attractive to capitalism because they do not challenge the existing system.

If implemented, Africa’s natural resources will be reused in the interests of European capital. Plans to install solar panels on thousands of hectares of North Africa do not benefit its people and ignore the fact that they live there.

The largest existing solar power plant in the world is located near Ouarzazate in Morocco. The 3,000-acre site was built on land stolen from the indigenous Amazigh people.

The idea that North Africa is empty land to be exploited by multinational energy corporations in the interests of European capitalism is just another example of settler colonialism.

“People talk about it being a desert that is not being used, but for the people here it is not a desert, it is a pasture. This is their territory and their future is in this land. When you take away my land, you take away my oxygen,” said one Ouarzazate protester. Hamza and his co-authors documented how people protesting against renewable energy projects that steal their land often face harsh repression.

Throughout the history of colonialism in Africa, Western governments and multinational corporations have built infrastructure to steal the wealth of local people.

In the 19th century, the construction of railways in Africa and Asia ensured that goods and raw materials quickly reached the Global North, while local people earned miserably and their countries became impoverished.

Plans to generate energy from the sun shining over North Africa are based on an imperialist mindset in which people and natural resources are merely inputs that fuel capital accumulation.

Climate change is happening because capitalism’s endless drive to maximize profit requires the insatiable use of fossil fuels and natural resources.

The solution, however, is not technological – it requires challenging capitalism itself. Without this, programs that impose solutions on people in the Global South will only perpetuate injustice and inequality.

This doesn’t mean we don’t need solar energy. However, a sustainable energy system can only be achieved through democratic discussion that puts ordinary people at the center of decisions about their own destiny.

• Manal Shqair and Hamza Hamouchene will be presenting their book Dismantling Green Colonialism at Marxism Festival 2024. Details can be found at marxismfestival.org.uk.