Decarbonising Development: The Political Ecology of Climate Change Mitigation and CDM Wind Projects in Oaxaca

ABSTRACT
The purpose of market-based climate change policy such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol, is to internalise environmental externalities associated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; carbon trade and offsets are used as a way to place a price tag on GHGs, thereby creating incentives for the industry to develop green technologies and other measures to reduce its emissions. Therefore, the basis for the market-based climate mitigation rests on the assumptions of ecological mondernisation. However, there are fundamental social and ecological tensions associated with the process of industrialisation and development under capitalism that cannot easily be resolved by green technological changes. This research advances this claim by revealing the contradictions of current climate regime under the Kyoto Protocol and the use of CDM as a way to decarbonise development in the global South. In order to examine more closely the relationship between implementations of climate change mitigation projects and the social and ecological tensions evident at the local level, this research uses a case study on CDM wind energy projects in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Hideki Koshizuka, M.E.S. Candidate School of Environmental Studies 8hk14@queensu.ca Dr. Marcus Taylor, Research Supervisor Department of Global Development Studies

Objective
This research seeks to examine the CDM and Kyoto Climate regime in light of critical political ecology studies, looking at the issues of wind energy projects in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Wind Resources in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec: Overview

Gulf of Mexico Dominant Wind Wind Corridor Pacific Ocean

Approach of the Research

This research takes on a critical political ecology approach, which rearticulates the issue of power relations and politics into ecological studies. By shedding light on the complex and conflict-laden dynamics along the lines of race, gender and class, critical political ecology approaches can be used to understand the social contexts within which climate mitigation projects are embedded. In doing so, it looks at three levels of issues related to the CDM and Kyoto climate regime: General theoretical examination of society-nature relationship under capitalism, using Marxist political ecology theory; the discourse and political economic analyses of CDM and Kyoto; and the local case study on controversies over the wind farm development in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. This presentation focuses on the last two.
Figure 1: Number of CDM projects 2003-11 (Source: UNEP, 2011)

The CDM, however, gives priority to fiscal and economic advantages over the quality or the biophysical benefits of a given project (e.g. solar energy vs. clean coal, latter being more attractive than the former). The host countries have often overlooked the sustainability potentials of the projects, and instead focused on their financial benefits.

Current Wi nd fa rms Propos ed Wind fa rms

The wind energy potential in the Isthmus is said to be at least 2,500 to 3,000 MW. The first wind energy project was undertaken by the Comisin Federal de Electricidad in 1997 as a pilot project called La Venta I. According to the local scholars at the Technical Institute of the Isthmus, the high potential of the wind resource had been known since the 1960s, yet no real development of wind energy sector was realised until 2006 with the construction of La Venta II. Since then, more than 400 wind turbines have been built since just in the municipality of Juchitan de Zaragoza. Apart from Venta I and II, these projects have been undertaken, and still are being proposed, by Spanish energy multinational corporations such Acciona, Preneal, and Iberdrola.

Controversies over CDM Wind Projects in Oaxaca

Controversies over the wind projects in the Isthmus have been described by the locals in an imaginative language of power, corruption, and ignorance, sometimes even as a reliving of colonialism by the Spaniards.

Figure 2: CDM projects by country 2004-11 (Source UNFCCC, 2011)

Kyoto, CDM, and Ecological Modernisation

The discourse surrounding Kyoto and CDM is the idea of ecological modernisation. It emphasises institutional changes that aim to synergise the needs for environmental protection and economic development by harnessing industrialising society to an environmentally benign path through the internalisation of environmental costs and science and technology development.

Although the discourse focuses on technological and economistic matters, actual implementation of eco-modernisation schemes takes place in highly politicised spheres. Politics matters because national political economic conditions are crucial in determining the attractiveness, impacts and implications of a given project. Non technoscientific factors are important in determining the effects of CDM projects. Similarly, such factors contribute to disproportionate (dis)advantages for some countries and unequal distributions of CDM projects across the globe (see Figure 2).

The nature of controversies seems to lie in the conflict between local land regime and modern leasing agreements. Where use and ownership have been synonymous, it is hard to conceive of the binding power the formal leasing contract entails. In some cases, the lease for a wind turbine prohibits the change of ownership of land unless approved of by the wind corporations. The contract may last for 30 years and be renewable up to 60 by the corporation without consultation. The full effects of such stipulations are yet to be seen. However, formal contracts impose disproportionate risks on the farmers who lack experience and access to knowledge in such negotiations.

Social class determine the individual developmental benefit of the wind projects. Consolidation of the new social order will potentially result in erosions of collective bargaining power amongst farmers, which had been battered as a result of political neoliberalisation in the rural sector, especially for those without resources. Landlessness, illiteracy, and gender will likely contribute to even more inequalities. The findings from the field research indicates that these social dynamics are an important determinant of the risks and benefits associated with the CDM projects.

Conclusion
This research revealed the extra-technical factors that determined the implications and impacts of CDM projects. According to the findings of this research, studies on climate mitigation need to address how these projects are embedded in local social race, class, gender relations since they can result in highly uneven development, overlooking important issues of such social dynamics.

Refereneces
Bumpus, A. G., and D. M. Liverman. 2008. Accumulation by decarbonisation and the governance of carbon offsets. Economic Geography 84(2), 127-155. Mol, A. 1996. Ecological modernisation and institutional reflexivity: Environmental reform in the late modern age. Environmental Politics 5(2), 302-323. Paulsson, E. 2009. A review of the CDM literature: From fine-tuning to critical scrutiny? International Environmental Agreements 9, 63-80. Peck, J., and A. Tickell. 2002. Neoliberalizing space. Antipode 34(3), 380-404 Smith, N. 2005. Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space, 3rd ed. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Marcus Taylor for his constant support and help throughout the (still ongoing) research, and for his generosity for providing the funding for the fieldwork.