Page 44 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 26
P. 44
The Environment
Finally, of critical importance,
a significant part of the human
population currently has no
access to electricity, clean water
and sufficient food. Simple
social justice demands we
prioritize extending renewable
energy to the people who need
basic energy resources the most.
Along with accepting limits, we
need to look critically at each
proposed development and ask
important questions: Has it been
endorsed by the local people it
Economics, Scale and Offsets Further, from U.S. Renewable will most affect? Does it supply
Energy Credits (RECs) to local needs? What would it
Ideally, new solar and wind carbon offsets in the United entail elsewhere in supplying
development should be planned Nations (UN) backed Paris components? How long will
and run by and for communities. Agreement Article 6, and Shell it last? How can its parts be
Often these programs are built Oil’s electricity tariff offsets in recycled or safely disposed of?
to a large-scale to justify the the U.K., the Netherlands and
corporate model impacting local Australia, all over the world Keys to a sustainable future are
land, communities and ecology. renewable energy can be sold relocalizing and decolonizing. A
Resistance against proposed as offsets that allow polluting region that can supply most of its
large-scale wind or solar farms corporations to claim net- own food and other necessities
is based on corporate developers zero or carbon neutrality (see is more secure than one that
coming in from the outside Carbon Pricing). Large-scale depends on long supply chains.
and imposing changes that wind farms have displaced Wind and solar power can allow
benefit utility companies and communities in Maharashtra, future generations some of the
shareholders, not the affected India and have sold offset conveniences we have come
community. Similarly, the credits to polluters in the global to take for granted, but for this
current model in which large North through the UN-backed to happen within a framework
utilities have huge, centralized Clean Development Mechanism of justice, sustainability and
generation sites from which (CDM) for years.[4] environmental protection, the
they send power to people over overdeveloped world must go
a wide area is disempowering, Energy Inequality and Social on an energy diet.
as ratepayers are dependent on Justice
corporate utilities.
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