News & Events
Green Colonialism and Green Sacrifice: conference materials
I. Book of Abstracts
The book of abstracts for the conference is available here.
II. Videos
Video 1: Keynote by Prof Miriam Lang. From sacrifice to reparations: Re-thinking the struggles for a dignified future from the margins. Discussant: Carlos Tornel (Thu 3 July 2025)
Video 2: Roundtable with Sofia Avila, Ulrich Brand, and Vasna Ramasar. Challenging capital accumulation and green colonialism in the low-carbon transition: theoretical and political perspectives. (Fri 4 July 2025)
Project Events
GRES will be delivering two events during the first week of July 2025, as part of the series of events titled "Planetary Health in 50 Days", organised by the JHU-UPF Public Policy Center. The GRES events are as follows:
2 July: [Spanish event] Jornada Sobre Transición Verde y Futuros Post-Crecimiento: Megaproyectos, Conflictos y Movilización Social
(Workshop on the Green Transition and Post-Growth Futures: Megaprojects, Conflicts and Social Mobilisation)
Este encuentro surge con el propósito de vincular la investigación crítica sobre los impactos y la planificación de la transición verde, con las luchas y alternativas ofrecidas por los movimientos sociales en sus territorios. La jornada busca dar protagonismo a voces y casos significativos del activismo y academia, que resultan fundamentales para comprender las complejas dinámicas de poder, resistencia y alternativas en juego.
Para más información e inscripciones, visita la página de la jornada.
Inscripciones abiertas hasta el día 31 de marzo de 2025.
3-4 July: Green Colonialism and Green Sacrifice: Critical perspectives on the politics of green transitions
[STREAMING IS AVAILABLE FOR THIS EVENT - SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS]
Since the launching of the European Green Deal and US discussions for a Green New Deal in 2019, the green transition agenda has taken decisive momentum. Nevertheless, critical analyses have drawn attention to the colonial dimensions of green transitions. For example, they have pointed out how the large-scale extraction of ‘transition minerals’ and the installation of industrial-scale renewable energy production facilities in the Global South for the benefit of decarbonising global North economies are a manifestation of green colonialism. Further literature has also explored the idea of “green sacrifice”, analysing the adverse effects of the green energy transition. This mini-conference aims at bringing together scholars working on those themes, to advance conversations and critically explore links between green colonialism and green sacrifice in the context of the green transition.
For more information, please visit the conference website.
Registration is not available for this conference.
Streaming is available for two of the plenary sessions of this conference (click on the text of each event for the link to streaming via Zoom):
Thursday 3rd July, 9:45am - 11:15am - Keynote Talk: Miriam Lang
Friday 4th July, 5:15pm - 6:15pm - Closing Roundtable: Vasna Ramasar, Sofía Ávila, Ulrich Brand
Participation in upcoming II Jornadas de Escucha a la Ciencia y al Territorio
The second episode of Jornadas de Escucha a la Ciencia y al Territorio (Listening to Science and Territory Sessions) is titled "Ecological Transition or Energy Speculation? Let's do things well". It is organised by the Alianza Energía y Territorio (Energy and Territory Alliance - ALIENTE) and the Universidad de Granada, with the objective of carrying out a deep analysis of the current process of the energy transition and the rolling out of renewable energies in Spain.
Dr. Christos Zografos, professor at the JHU-UPF Public Policy Center and PI of GRES, will present "Green sacrifice as a political practice en the ecological transition. Examples drom the Iberic peninsula and other parts of Europe," as part of a roundtable session on "Speculative bubbles and territories of sacrifice in the unfolding of renewable energy infrastructures" on the first day of the two-day event.
The full schedule and further information can be found here (please note: the website and event are in Spanish).
Past Seminar: 24/03/2025
This presentation reviews the last year-and-a half of fieldwork exploring the life cycle of solar panels in the United States. In agreement with Jean-Baptiste Fressoz latest book— More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy—Dunlap argues that the situation is even more concerning and that not only does the concept of “energy transition” need to be discarded but so do its partner terms: “renewable energy” and “sustainable development.” As it currently stands, these concepts are manipulative, misleading and preventing adequate socioecological action. With Fressoz’s book in mind, this point will be advanced by exploring solar panel development across five sites: Mining, manufacturing, operation and recycling, which includes general electronic waste recycling in a US Federal Prison. While Dunlap is an advocate of lower-carbon technologies, such as wind, solar and micro-hydroelectric energy extraction, this presentation shows how painfully disconnected the political debates and terminology are from the reality of solar, but also industrial production of lower-carbon technologies and the onset of socioecological crisis itself.
March 24, 2025 @ 17:30-19:00
Auditori Mercè Rodoreda
Edifici Mercè Rodoreda 23, Planta -1
Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Campus de la Ciutadella
Carrer de Ramon Trias Fargas, 25, 27, Sant Martí
08005 Barcelona
Alexander Dunlap is a postdoctoral research fellow at Boston University Institute for Global (IGS), USA, and a visiting research fellow in the Global Development Studies Department, University of Helsinki, Finland. Their work has critically examined police-military transformations, market-based conservation, wind energy development and extractive projects more generally in Latin America, Europe and the United States. They have written numerous books, most recently This System is Killing Us: Land Grabbing, the Green Economy & Ecological Conflict. Email: [email protected]