Systemic transition: Decolonising energy economies to reconcile prosperity with ecological limits (150 chars)

Indigenous epistemologies frame energy transitions as relational reciprocity rather than extraction, where land and water are kin, not commodities. Systems like the Māori 'whakapapa' worldview or the Navajo 'Hózhǫ́' ethics center long-term ecological balance over short-term profit, challenging the 'clean economy' paradigm's anthropocentrism. Yet these knowledges are excluded from policy models, which instead rely on Western cost-benefit analyses that quantify nature as 'natural capital.' The erasure of Indigenous land tenure systems in renewable energy siting (e.g., solar farms on sacred sites) reproduces colonial spatial violence under green branding.

Historical patterns show that 'green transitions' often replicate colonial violence: 19th-century deforestation for industrialization displaced Indigenous peoples, while 20th-century 'development' projects (e.g., Green Revolution) exacerbated inequality in the Global South. The current lithium boom mirrors 16th-century silver extraction, where resource wealth flowed to Europe while local ecosystems and communities suffered. Structural adjustment programs in the 1980s forced Global South nations to prioritize export-oriented resource extraction, a legacy now embedded in 'clean economy' supply chains. These precedents reveal how 'progress' narratives serve extractive elites while masking dispossession.

Cross-cultural wisdom offers pluriversal pathways to energy justice: Buen Vivir in Latin America centers collective well-being over GDP, while Ubuntu philosophy in Southern Africa emphasizes interdependence with nature. Indigenous-led conservation in Australia's Martu lands has restored 3 million hectares through fire management, proving that biodiversity thrives under custodial governance. Inuit knowledge systems document climate impacts as cultural erosion, challenging the separation of 'environment' and 'society' in Western thought. These models demonstrate that 'clean economies' must be co-designed with marginalized communities, not imposed by technocrats.

Scientific consensus confirms that renewable energy transitions reduce greenhouse gas emissions but often overlook lifecycle impacts like mining pollution or e-waste in the Global South. Studies show that Indigenous-managed lands store more carbon than protected areas, yet these data are rarely integrated into policy models. The 'efficiency' paradigm in economics is critiqued by ecological economics (e.g., Daly's steady-state models) as incompatible with planetary boundaries. Meanwhile, degrowth literature (e.g., Hickel) highlights how GDP growth in wealthy nations drives ecological overshoot, a blind spot in 'green growth' narratives.

Artistic and spiritual traditions frame energy as sacred: In Hinduism, the river Ganges is a goddess whose pollution is a moral failing; in Christianity, 'dominion' over nature is reinterpreted by liberation theology as stewardship. Indigenous art forms like Haida carvings or Māori whakairo encode ecological knowledge, preserving it across generations when written records fail. Sufi poetry and Zen koans use metaphor to critique consumerism, offering tools to reimagine prosperity beyond materialism. These traditions reveal that systemic change requires cultural transformation, not just technological substitution.

Future scenarios must model degrowth in wealthy nations, reparative finance for the Global South, and Indigenous-led conservation as core strategies—not peripheral add-ons. Modeling shows that a 10% reduction in Northern consumption could offset 30% of global emissions, yet this is excluded from IPCC pathways. Scenario planning by the IPCC's SR1.5 ignores how colonial debt structures constrain Southern adaptation, while Indigenous futures (e.g., Māori 'kaitiakitanga' economies) are treated as 'alternative' rather than central. True future-proofing requires centering intergenerational justice and ecological limits.

Marginalized communities bear the brunt of 'clean economy' extraction: Congolese cobalt miners face child labor and toxic exposure, while lithium brine extraction in Chile's Atacama desert depletes Indigenous water sources. Women in rural India are displaced by solar farm projects marketed as 'green,' reproducing patriarchal land grabs. Climate refugees from the Pacific Islands, whose homelands are sinking, are denied asylum while wealthy nations profit from carbon markets. Their exclusion from policy design ensures that 'solutions' serve extractive capital, not justice.