The Geopolitics of Green Colonialism: Forum & Book Launch

The Program on Alternative Development of the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies is co-organizing a forum and book launch, “The Geopolitics of Green Colonialism: Global Justice and Ecosocial Transitions,” on 20 July 2024, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm (Philippine Standard Time) at Room 7, UP School of Economics, UP Diliman, Quezon City. The event is free and open to the public, but seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis, but participants are encouraged to register.

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Abstract

The time for denial is over. Across the Global North, the question of how we should respond to the climate crisis has been answered—with a shift to renewables, electric cars, carbon trading and hydrogen. However, beneath the sustainability branding lurks new environmental injustices and green colonialism. The green growth and clean energy plans of the Global North require the large-scale extraction of strategic minerals from the Global South. The geopolitics of transition imply sacrificing not only territories, but truly sustainable ways of inhabiting this world. The forum aims to address the specifics of this new green colonialism and the alternatives being constructed by activists and policymakers in the Global South, especially in Asia, in coordination with allies in the Global North.

Speakers

Mary Ann Manahan is “a Filipina feminist and activist researcher, Mary Ann Manahan is currently a doctoral assistant with the Conflict Research Group of the Department of Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University in Belgium. Since 2020, she has also been the co-coordinator of the Global Working Group Beyond Development. Formerly, Manahan was a Senior Program Officer with the Asian-based Focus on the Global South NGO, and Coordinator of the IFI Advisory Board of the US-based grassroots grant-making organisation, Global Greengrants Fund. Her recent research focuses on the intersections of indigenous people’s struggles for self-determination, forest conservation and alternatives to development” (Taken from Pluto Press).

Rachmi Hertanti “is a lawyer and has a background in International Trade Law from the Master’s School of Law at The University of Indonesia. She has been involved in several just trade policy advocacy and campaigns since 2011 with a focus on Intellectual Property Rights on seeds and medicines, Investment treaties and corporate lawsuits, and digital trade, including trade-related impacts on energy and raw materials” (Taken from Transnational Institute).

Serving as discussant is Walden Bello, PhD from Focus on the Global South.

Organizers

For queries, please email: [email protected].

The forum and book launch is co-presented by the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies (CIDS) Program on Alternative Development (AltDev), Focus on the Global South – Philippines, and the Global Working Group Beyond Development.

AltDev is one of the Research Programs of CIDS, the policy research unit of the University of the Philippines. AltDev aims to look at paradigms, policies, practices, and projects that are largely marginalized and excluded from the mainstream. Visit AltDev’s page and download their publications for free. Visit the UP CIDS database and download over 900+ policy papers for free.

Focus on the Global South is an activist think tank in Asia providing analysis and building alternatives for just social, economic and political change. The Global Working Group Beyond Development is a collective of around thirty engaged researchers, movement-based organizers, activists and popular educators from five continents, converging to promote systemic, radical, and emancipatory alternatives to the currently dominant system.