Dismantling Green Colonialism: Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region

by Hamza Hamouchene (editor), Katie Sandwell (Editor)

The Arab region is a focus of world politics, with authoritarian regimes, significant fossil fuel reserves, and histories of colonialism and imperialism. It is also the site of potentially immense green energy resources.

The writers in this collection explore a region ripe for energy transition but held back by resource-grabbing and (neo)colonial agendas. They show the importance of fighting for a just energy transition and climate justice - exposing policies and practices that protect global and local political elites, multinational corporations and military regimes.

Covering a wide range of countries from Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria and Tunisia to Egypt, Sudan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Palestine, this book challenges Eurocentrism. It highlights instead a class-conscious approach to climate justice that is necessary for our survival.

Genres: Climate Change, Nonfiction, Environment, Middle East, Politics

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2023

About the author

Hamza Hamouchene is a London-based Algerian researcher-activist, commentator and a founding member of Algeria Solidarity Campaign (ASC), and Environmental Justice North Africa (EJNA).

Reviews

[Wael Gamal · Rating 5 out of 5]

'This book is crucial for those seeking alternative visions and policies to the complete disaster currently being produced by capitalism, and to capitalism’s failing global and local projects to deal with an issue that is a question of life and death. Despite the multi-dimensional crisis that the Arab region – and the whole world – is going through […] the Arab region remains largely absent from the intensifying debate over the future.'
- Wael Gamal, Egyptian writer and researcher in political economy

[Mariam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting read. Took my time with it (almost 2 months), highlights an important; often overlooked, part of green energy, Green Colonialism.

The larger chunk of the book talks about North African countries, with two short chapters on the Gulf. It was particularly interesting to read about Morocco and their current occupation over the Western Sahara. Definitely eye opening, it is very unsettling to see a once colonized state, become a colonizer themselves.

The just transition of energy leads to a higher climate injustice.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This insightful collection does a great job of illuminating the networks of exploitation and extractivism that lie at the heart of neocolonial energy ventures, whether they be fossil fuels or renewable. The Middle East and North Africa, as each of the talented researchers highlights in turn, is a region where these entanglements and global relationships are particularly visible and relevant.

Africa is the lowest producer of greenhouse gasses globally (less than 4%) and yet contains many of the regions most vulnerable to the devastating impact of climate change. This discrepancy is even starker when we consider the brutal historical reality of Africa being de-developed through genocide and slavery to fund the mass pollution and ecocide that the European and American industrial revolutions entailed. The Middle East has a different historical trajectory, enduring similar colonial extractivism but enjoying rapid development (along exploitative capitalist lines, shaking off the mantle of colonialism only to assist in the continuation of neocolonialism on their poorer neighbours) in the last 50 years thanks to their state ownership of vast oil and gas reserves. This regional dynamic is something that advocates of a just green transition need to consider, especially when Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia's national oil company) 2022 profit exceeded the combined results of Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron - officially being the 'largest profit recorded by any company in the world, in any business, ever' (p235).

As the chapters elucidate, nations in these regions have long histories of their natural resources being controlled and managed by unjust regimes exporting national resources (to Europe in particular) to the detriment of citizens - who are often impoverished and immiserated by other heads of the same hydra (to use the Zapatista's analogy) in order to make them more vulnerable to such extraction. Energy resources in particular have entrenched and exploitative power dynamics that have not changed substantially in the decades since the Middle East and North Africa liberated themselves from formal colonial structures. Those familiar with discussions of neocolonialism will be unsurprised at how this region exports vast amounts of fossil fuel to the EU even while many of its citizens (most, in some areas) are without power or facing frequent power outages. These dynamics were greatly exacerbated by the neoliberal austerity regimes imposed upon the region by the IMF and the World Bank, which in many of the countries studied in the book included breaking up and privatising national energy companies (and even the intentional closing of things such as technical colleges that could provide routes into re-nationalising).

That neocolonialism shapes the production of coal, oil, and gas, with extraction displacing and impoverishing local peoples to produce exports that mostly enrich international entities, will likely be no new information for those interested in this book. Where many western green advocates may be surprised is that the reality of renewables under capitalism in fact operates the same way - and even legitimises the worst brutalities of fossil fuel regimes. Chapter 2, An Unjust Transition, highlights how Morocco intentionally builds renewable projects in the Western Sahara, a sovereign nation that it illegally occupies, in order to legitimise their occupation on the world stage while making other African countries less likely to isolate Morocco diplomatically for its occupation due to their dependence on its energy. Chapter 3, Arab-Isreali Eco-Normalisation, demonstrates how Isreal similarly uses the expansion of renewable energy to legitimise its brutal occupation of Palestine and the genocide they're carrying out - while also isolating Palestine's neighbouring countries through energy (and water, which is interlinked as desalination requires large energy inputs) dependence. While that dynamic of normalisation is happening at a diplomatic level, at a human level Israel controls the food and water resources of Gaza and the West bank to enable ethnic cleansing, refusing Palestinian requests to build wells and intentionally destroying millions of pounds worth of the small solar panels donated to Palestine by international relief efforts.

So the status quo of brutal power dynamics characterised by displacement and destruction continues rapidly regardless of whether they operate oil or renewables - at least some of the impact on the environment is lessened, right? Well, no. The logic and mechanics of extractivism are inherently destructive, and a swap to renewables doesn't alter this. Or, to put it another way, the production of renewable energy under capitalism is demonstrably far worse for local communities and the environment than non-renewable production under any other system (it is, after all, the immense consumption and waste that is the key issue). And even if this were not true, studying the Middle East and North Africa also highlights how the expansion of renewables is in fact used to produce and export MORE fossil fuels, not to replace it. Chapter 11, A Transition to Where?, points out that the gulf states are intentionally pursuing renewable energy to serve a rising national demand for electricity so that it doesn't impact their ability to export oil, while its efforts at ecological modernisation (tackling issues such as the fact is has to import most of its food) mainly involves 'techno-fixes and accumulation by dispossession in the name of "sustainability"...premised on the idea that enviornmental sustainability is a technocratic issue, one that can be dis-embedded from the highly political questions of the distribution of wealth and resources, consumption, and the extraction of profit' (p286). Similar patterns can be seen across the region. This use of renewables to further exploitation and capitalist accumulation while destroying the environment is seen starkly when you look at who profits from new renewable projects in the region; 'those who benefit from green projects generally have a long track of polluting and destroying ecosystems' (p227).

So what is the way forward? The answer is fairly simple, even if the question of how to wrestle control of vital systems from capitalist classes to carry it out is not, and I'll quote at length from Adam Henieh as his writing in chapter 11 presents a clear and compelling alternative and is representative of the whole book's approach:

'The liberal model has failed both economically and ecologically, particularly with regard to energy and climate justice. Governmental reports, including that of the CESE partially acknowledge this failure, while continuing to advocate for more liberalisation, dismantling of state enterprises and privatisation of the whole energy sector.
There will be no just transition as long as the energy sector remains under the control of foreign transnational companies and a local ruling elite that is free to plunder the state and generate as much profit as it wishes, within a culture of authoritarianism and nepotism, The debt system and PPPs [public-private partnerships which amount to the privatisation of profits and nationalisation of losses] are a major obstacle to any model of popular sovereignty, including energy sovereignty.
A just energy transition requires the local population's sovereignty at every stage of the production process: design, implementation, operation, storage, and distribution. The energy sector must be considered a public service, co-managed by the workers involved and the local populations who agree to share part of their territories (land, water, forests, etc) for the collective interest. In this framework, local populations should also benefit from preferential tariffs, if not wholly free electricity services. The current bureaucratic forms of government must be replaced by local and decentralised forms of governance.
Prioritising decentralised solutions and projects also means bringing energy production as close as possible to users, in order to avoid "Joule-effect" losses and to limit transport costs...
Regional integration schemes must also emerge based on the principles of solidarity and the common good." (p223)

I find it compelling how increasingly relevant such demands and alternatives, shaped by the reality in the Middle East and North Africa, are here in the UK.

[The New Arab]

Despite the Arab world's abundant renewable resources, neo-colonial agendas have held the region back. Dismantling Green Colonialism shows the importance of global climate justice, and expose policies that protect the neoliberal elite.
Read our review here: https://www.newarab.com/features/what...

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptional data driven writing and gives a rock solid prescription for success. Intro is comprehensive and throughout the book elaborates on all the themes from there, so for my puposes was overstated throughout but i understand.

[مُّنِيْر · Rating 5 out of 5]

من أهم الكتب التي يمكن قراءتها لتثقيف نفسك عن خارطة الطاقة العالمية الحالية مع التركيز على منطقة الشرق الاوسط.
الكتاب عبارة عن تجميعة من الدراسات المختلفة لعدة بلدان في الشرق الاوسط لدراسة ما يسمى بالتحول الاخضر او مصادر الطاقة النظيفة.
الدراسات منظمة وموثقة وعميقة للغاية.
تتعرض كل دراسة للوضع الطاقوي في البلد محل الدراسة، وسياسات الحكومات عبر السنين سواء لتوفير الطاقة للسكان او التعامل مع الثروات الطبيعية منها، ثم تعرج على -غالبًا- التعارض الحاصل بين الربح وتحقيق عدالة ومساواة في توزيع الطاقة؛ الامر الذي يؤدي بالطبع للطغيان والظلم وتركز الثروات في فئات معينة من المجتمع.
تعرج الدراسات بعد ذلك إلى ارهاصات التحول الطاقوي جهة مايسمى الطاقة النظيفة وكيف يتم ذلك لصالح الشمال العالمي الفني وليس لصالح سكان الشرق الاوسط التعساء، بل يتضررون من في الغالب بسبب اجراءات نزع الملكية واقتطاع الاراضي وتهجير السكان المحليين في البيئات الواعدة لتخليق ذلك النوع من الطاقة.
من المثير للانتباه تداخل اسرائيل الشديد في كل عمليات الإستحواذ على مصادر الطاقة او المساهمة فيها بشكل مباشر.
تعرض الكاتب كذلك لمسألة النفط العالمية ووضع دول الخليج العربي والتحول المزعوم لها تجاه الطاقة النظيفة المتجددة وفند العديد من الكتاب تلك الادعاءات من خلال استعراض ودراسة متأنية لتطور الاقتصاد الخليجي فيما يخص النفط.
الكتاب مهم للغاية قد يبدو في بعض الاحيان القليلة أنه موجه للمتخصصين لكن في الحقيق فهو سهل الاستيعاب للغاية للقاريء العادي.