scholarly journals Green Energy—Green for Whom? A Case Study of the Kabinakagami River Waterpower Project in Northern Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9445
Author(s):  
Stephen R. J. Tsuji ◽  
Dan D. P. McCarthy ◽  
Stephen Quilley
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Hydroelectric Power ◽  
Northern Canada ◽  
Energy Projects

Green energy has become a term that heralds efforts of environmental conservation and protection worldwide; however, much of it is marred with questions of what it means to be green. More precisely, it has become a question of Green for whom? While many of the impacts of supposed green energy projects are local in their reach, some may be more regional in their scope, such as hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power generation negatively impacts the environment and people who rely on the environment for sustenance, such as, Indigenous peoples of northern Canada. Taking into account their position with respect to the areas impacted by these green projects, many Indigenous peoples have voiced their concerns and doubts concerning green energy, which is purported to be a mode of energy production that champions the environment. The Kabinakagami River Waterpower Project serves as a case study for both the potential effects of the project and the different views associated with these endeavors. If nothing else, the accounts and testimonies found within shall stand as a testament to the hubris of calling an energy project green without properly assessing and considering the impacts. While these statements relate to the case presented, they also carry significance in the wider world due to the numerous Indigenous communities around the world that are having their spaces slowly being encroached upon in the name of sustainable growth, or green energy. This will especially be true in the post-COVID-19 period where green energy and a green economy are being touted as a way towards state and worldwide recovery.

scholarly journals Management of investment process in alternative energy projects

2019 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 02032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Rostova ◽  
Svetlana Shirokova ◽  
Natalya Sokolitsyna ◽  
Anastasiia Shmeleva
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Energy ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Full Description ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Management Algorithm ◽  
Energy Projects ◽  
Green Business ◽  
Investment Process

The article is devoted to the problem of creating favorable conditions and incentives for attracting investments in alternative energy projects in the regions. An analysis of Russian practice in the field of “green” financing showed that individual projects are being effectively implemented, but there is no established mechanism for attracting investments for “green” energy projects in the regions. The implementation of high-tech projects requires large amounts of investment, but in most cases, “green” business models are of high-risk and require a set of additional measures and incentives. The study suggests approach to the management of investment processes in regional alternative energy projects in accordance with the concept of green economy, formulates management algorithm, and gives full description of each stage. This work recommendations and results can be used in needed regions investment attractiveness raise measures elaboration for alternative energy projects realization.

Politics of Extraction: Theories and New Concepts for Critical Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Kröger
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Land Conflicts ◽  
Theoretical Approaches

The politics of extraction have not been in the limelight of international relations (IR) theory or scholarship. This situation is starting to change, however, with the rapid expansion of climate change, which has started to make it impossible to discuss any key topic of IR without taking the changing planet and environment seriously into consideration, even placing this as the key issue, for example by interweaving world-ecology within theories. An increasing number of IR scholars are calling climate change an imminent emergency and catastrophe that is already starting to have major impacts on global politics. The linkages between politics of extraction, globally expanding extractivisms, and the climate and ecological crises are not always straightforward, as much of the new extraction is taking place under the label of sustainability, bioeconomy, or green economy transitions. These politics can involve however dire land conflicts with enclosures, violence and armed struggles around the establishment of so-called green energy plantations, capacities for biofuel production, or extensive tree plantations displacing forests, in the name of fighting climate change. This has led to major conflicts between many carbon-focused climate policies and indigenous communities, for example. Several new schools of theorizing have risen to explain and follow these politics in the interface of global extractivisms, land rushes, green grabs, resource scrambles, and carbon, energy, and climate interfaces. Uncovering the dynamics of these politics in the interface of current climate and ecological crises and their solution attempts requires critical theoretical approaches. After an overview of journals, books, databases, and methodology, major theoretical approaches and the differences between them are surveyed, including the literature on global environmental governance, political ecology, and the Marxist and post-Cartesian approaches. Finally, the latest and most important concepts used to study the politics of extraction are explored. These organizing concepts include land grabbing, extractivism, resource frontiers, and the green economy, and their analysis crosses many fields and has provided much development in the field of the politics of extraction in recent years. This field is evolving rapidly, and concepts such as extractivism are gaining ground in a rising number of different applications and theoretical advancements. The methods, theoretical approaches, and organizing concepts reviewed here can be used for different types of analyses of natural resource politics across differing sectors and targets of extraction, which are assessed in detail in the Oxford Bibliographies article “Natural Resources, Energy Politics, and Environmental Consequences.”

scholarly journals "A Generator": A Mini Hydroelectric Apparatus as Renewable Source of Energy

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Secil Satir ◽  
Yildirim B. Kestane ◽  
Sertan Dogru
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Mechanical Energy ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Hydroelectric Power ◽  
Hydroelectric Power Plants ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Clean Energy Source

Abstract--The matter is considered in the scope of sustainability and initially the basis and content of the term is defined. Based on this definition, the qualities of water and water energy are inspected as water is one of the most important type of clean energy source. Water energy is a time-honored renewable energy whose use dates back to earliest periods in history. The subject titled “A Generator” is a small but significant support to environmental protection as it defines a patented object which generates energy from water with a mini apparatus. Protection of future lives of creatures and keeping them in infinite existence necessitate taking measures in advance. Concepts such as environment protection, sustainability, green energy, green economy etc. have also been under consideration by the UN since the 1970s. The subject is very comprehensive. This paper inspects as required hydroelectric power plants which produce clean energy and date back to ancient times. Water, as main source of hydroelectric power plants, is collected in proper basins and thus provided with potential energy. Water is then dropped from heights to trigger its kinetic energy and canalized to turbine wheels, moving which it turns kinetic/mechanical energy into electric power. This basic characteristic of water is evaluated in a mini apparatus this time. And an apparatus of unaccustomed size is obtained, which could support electricity production in household wet areas.

scholarly journals An introductory framework for ‘Habilito: Debt for Life’

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-89
Author(s):  
Chuck Sturtevant
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Tropical Hardwood ◽  
Bolivian Amazon ◽  
Bolivian Lowlands ◽  
Debt Obligation

The documentary film Habilito: Debt for Life provides a case study of the conflicts and tensions that arise at the point of contact between highland migrants and Mosetenes, members of an indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon. It focuses particularly on a system of debt peonage known locally as ‘habilito’. This system is used throughout the Bolivian lowlands, and much of the rest of the Amazon basin, to secure labor in remote areas. Timber merchants advance market goods to Mosetenes at inflated prices, in exchange for tropical hardwood timber. When it comes time to settle accounts, the indebted person often finds that the wood he has cut does not meet his debt obligation, and he has to borrow more money to return to the forest to continue logging. This permanent cycle of debt permits actors from outside these indigenous communities to maintain control over the extraction of wood and provides them with a free source of labor in the exploitation of timber resources. This system is practiced especially in remote areas where systems of patronage predominate, and where colonists with a market-based economic logic come into contact with Amazonian indigenous peoples who, historically, have not employed an economic logic of saving or hoarding.

Reclaiming Land

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanondora Billiot ◽  
Jessica Parfait
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Impacts ◽  
The World

Environmental changes are projected to have adverse impacts on marginalized populations through additional pressures placed on already struggling social systems. Indigenous communities, given their attachment to and dependence on the land, are especially vulnerable. Though indigenous peoples throughout the world contribute the least to changes in the environment, they are disproportionally affected. To date, there has been limited research on health impacts resulting from environmental changes, especially among indigenous peoples in the United States. This chapter presents a case study on how environmental change exposure (e.g., observations, frequency, threats) and indigenous-specific sensitivities (e.g., historical trauma, ethnic identity, discrimination) affect the likelihood of participation in adaptation activities by indigenous peoples living in a physically vulnerable coastal area of the United States. It connects these findings with themes arising within other indigenous communities experiencing environmental changes.

scholarly journals Cree Elders’ Perspectives on Land-Based Education: A Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-91
Author(s):  
John Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Indigenous Land

This study deals with the notion that Indigenous peoples are concerned with preserving their communities, nations, cultural values, and educational traditions. Indigenous peoples have a land-based education system that emerges out of their own worldviews and perspectives, which need to be applied to research concerning Indigenous cultures. This work explores Indigenous land-based education through the perspectives of Cree Elders of Northern, Manitoba. Six Cree Elders were interviewed to explore the ideas and practices of land-based education. The article engages discussion of Indigenous land-based education stemming from Elders’ teachings of Indigenous knowledge, cultural values, identity, and vision. Informed by Cree Elders, this qualitative study articulates an Indigenous interpretation of land-based education. Research findings demonstrate that Indigenous land-based education can be used to promote well-being among Indigenous peoples in Canada. While the study is based on the Cree experience in Northern Manitoba, its message is significant to many other Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Drawing on the Elders’ teachings, policy recommendations are generated for advancing Indigenous land-based education

The Green Energy Act: Will Ontario Become the Next Germany?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Ha
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Incentive System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Energy Projects ◽  
Business Conditions ◽  
The Right ◽  
Sensitive Issues

Climate change and the depletion of fossil fuel are no longer a growing concern, but the most time‐sensitive issues facing the society.  In response to this, Ontario passed the Green Energy Act (GEA) intolaw in 2009 and introduced a number of initiatives to promote the “green economy” in the province,making it the first North American jurisdiction with an incentive system modelled after Germany’s feed‐in tariffs (FITs).  Many believe that the GEA will improve the business conditions for clean technologyendeavours in Ontario; nonetheless, others doubt that people will be susceptible to the higher energyprice and claim that now is not the right time.  This paper aims to critically assess the viability of themarket development for renewable energy as proposed by the GEA.  Considering that it is relatively earlyto make any conclusion, the first part of this paper provides a brief summary of what the GEA entails andcompares it with the case of another jurisdiction after which the GEA was modelled – namely, Germany.  In the second part, this paper closely examines the effects that the GEA has had on businesses in Ontario.  More specifically, analysis of ongoing “green energy” projects is provided based on interviews withindustry professionals in both the public and the private sectors in the province.

scholarly journals ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF INTEGRATING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGES AND PERSPECTIVES IN ENGINEERING CURRICULA ON STUDENTS’ LEARNING: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CLASSROOM CASE STUDY

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afua Adobea Mante ◽  
Jillian Seniuk Cicek ◽  
Marcia Friesen ◽  
Leonnie Kavanagh
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Indigenous Knowledges ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
The Impact

Indigenous Peoples in Canada have practiced sustainability for centuries. Their knowledges, perspectives and design principles are applicable on both a local and global scale especially in our quest to find sustainable approaches to food security, energy independence, and climate change impacts. However, the opportunities for Indigenous Peoples to fully participate and formally offer knowledge and guidance on sustainable development in engineering education have been limited. Engineering training in Canada requires students to develop competency in the area of assessing the impact of engineering on society and the environment. Within this competency is the ability to understand and apply the concepts of sustainability to engineering activities. Engaging with Indigenous Peoples to understand their perspectives on engineering and society provides a platform to critically assess existing engineering curricula, expand the concept of sustainability, and come closer to a common place of understanding. Understanding the impact of incorporating Indigenous perspectives in the curricula on students’ learning and understandings will help inform the further incorporation of Indigenous perspectives in engineering education. This paper presents the research methodology and instruments for a case study designed to explore students’ learning in one engineering course that integrates an Indigenous Elder’s perspectives on how to effectively communicate, engage, and obtain local knowledge on engineering projects with Indigenous communities in Manitoba. Findings will be used to inform engineering curriculum design that are enhanced by Indigenous knowledges and perspectives.

Modernisation of Higher Education – Willful Action or Wishful Thinking? The Case of Bulgaria

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Elena Blagoeva
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
National Level ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

The impact of the last global economic crisis (2008) on the European economy put a strain on higher education (HE), yet it also pushed the sector towards intensive reforms and improvements. This paper focuses on the “Strategy for the Development of Higher Education in the Republic of Bulgaria 2014-2020”. With a case study methodology, we explore the strategic endeavours of the Bulgarian government to comply with the European directions and to secure sustainable growth for the HE sector. Our research question is ‘How capable is the Bulgarian HE Strategy to overcome the economic and systemic restraints of Bulgarian higher education?’. Because the development of strategies for HE within the EU is highly contextual, a single qualitative case study was chosen as the research approach. HE institutions are not ivory towers, but subjects to a variety of external and internal forces. Within the EU, this is obviated by the fact that Universities obtain their funds from institutions such as governments, students and their families, donors, as well as EU-level programmes. Therefore, to explore how these pressures interact to affect strategic action on national level, the case method is well suited as it enabled us to study the phenomena thoroughly and deeply. The paper suggests the actions proposed within the Strategy have the potential to overcome the delay, the regional isolation and the negative impact of the economic crisis on the country. Nevertheless, the key elements on which the success or failure of this Strategy hinges are the control mechanisms and the approach to implementation. Shortcomings in these two aspects of strategic actions in HE seem to mark the difference between gaining long-term benefits and merely saving face in front of international institutions.

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