By Asmaa Ashraf
The green transition is presented as a new paradigm for human civilisation, shedding its skin and stepping into a pollution-free techno-future to fulfil a promised green prophecy.
In their Dismantling Green Colonialism: Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region, Hamza Hamouchene and Katie Sandwell expose the false promises of the unjust “green transition” that deems populations in the Global South expendable for the energy security of Europe.
Hamza and Katie shatter this shiny facade through their study of green colonialism in the Middle East and North Africa. Colonial green energy projects merely extend the logics of capital accumulation for the few, and imperialist domination of the many, into a future on fire.
Hamza and Katie paint a devastatingly ugly, yet accurate, picture of what energy transition under capitalism currently looks like. While EU countries in the Global North endeavour to decarbonise their own economies, they promote extraction in the South to ensure their own energy security, all while reaping the merit of appearing to move “closer to net zero” on the world stage.
By Asmaa Ashraf