Greenwashing in the Amazon: Debunking False Green Solutions

by Mauricio López

The concept of greenwashing has gained unfortunate relevance, especially regarding the energy transition. Greenwashing occurs when companies, governments, or institutions promote products, services, or projects as ecologically responsible, while minimizing or hiding their negative impacts. The inhabitants of the Amazon, particularly Indigenous peoples, are witnessing how greenwashing is not only problematic from an environmental perspective. It is also detrimental to human rights and social justice.

Renewable energies, such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric, are urgent solutions to the climate crisis. However, their development has not been without controversy. While these projects are presented as ecological alternatives, the consequences of their implementation in the Amazon reveal a complex paradox.

This part of the village of Boca Sanibega, home to Indigenous Ashaninka people, would be flooded by the Pakitzapango Dam, a proposed hydroelectric project in the Peruvian Amazon. (Tomás Muñita, Flickr)

The expansion of “clean” energy projects, including mining for transition minerals, into Indigenous territories and sensitive ecosystems creates serious conflicts. Developers often carry out these projects without prior, free, and informed consultation with Indigenous peoples.

This demonstrates the fundamental flaw with mainstream “green growth” rhetoric. All economic activity depends upon natural resources, and in a full world, all natural-resource extraction impacts one community or another. We need renewables to combat climate change, but climate change isn’t the only issue we face. Governments and individual consumers, particularly in high-income contexts, should also strive to decrease overall energy use. If we are to build a society of inclusion rather than exploitation, the renewable energy we do use must be developed with Indigenous peoples at the center of the decision-making process.

Clean Energy Hides Conflicts

In the Amazon, decision-makers fail to consider or intentionally hide the social and territorial impacts of clean energy projects. These projects not only negatively affect biodiversity but also impact the ways of life, organization, and worldviews of Indigenous peoples.

Hydroelectric projects in the Amazon, such as the Belo Monte project in Brazil, are paradigmatic of this practice. They are presented as “clean solutions,” but hidden behind them are the forced displacement of Indigenous communities, the destruction of their territories, and the disruption of their traditional ways of life.

Raoni Metuktire speaks on a European stage against the Bolsonaro administration’s threats to the Amazon. (Sérgio Lima, Flickr)

Many Indigenous people are determined to resist any advance of mining and large hydroelectric projects carried out without their consent. Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, a member of the Kayapo people, has embodied this resistance. But renewable energy projects, including mining for transition minerals, threaten countless Indigenous people and communities.

Concrete examples of the negative impacts of mining related to the energy transition are provided by a 2020 report on mining in the Amazon. Multinational companies that mine lithium, copper, and cobalt—minerals key to electric vehicle batteries—are degrading the region and its rainforests. This mining has a smaller impact, in terms of CO2 emissions, than the fossil fuels it offsets. However, mining’s effects on biodiversity and Indigenous peoples are devastating.

Mining, Energy, and Rights: An Unsustainable Model

Corporations and governments frame the mining that fuels the energy transition as the way of the future, different from traditional extractive models. However, this mining—like all mining—requires unsustainable practices that affect Indigenous territories and cause irreversible damage to the environment.

Some of the most heartbreaking testimonies come from the Indigenous peoples of Peru, where illegal mining and large mining companies are irreversibly impacting ecosystems. In addition to being vital to global climate balance, these ecosystems are the ancestral home of Indigenous peoples, such as the Asháninka and Shipibo.

Author Mauricio López works to understand the perspectives of, and challenges facing, Indigenous peoples in the Amazon. (author’s photo)

In recent decades, Peru has been the victim of the expansion of illegal gold mining. However, clean energy projects, under the pretext of mitigating climate change, have also affected communal lands. Examples include the Chinese-owned Las Bambas copper mine, which produces two percent of global supply for the clean energy transition, and the Pakitzapango hydropower project.

I have had many conversations with Indigenous leaders in which they’ve expressed grave concern about the acceleration of deforestation in key areas of the Amazon. These leaders denounce “clean” energy projects that are implemented without considering the consequences for the environment and local communities. Such projects perpetuate a development model that dispossesses Indigenous peoples of their lands and resources.

Integral Ecology: A Call to Ecological Conversion

Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato Si’, calls for society to embrace “integral ecology.” This approach to ecology promotes an understanding of the interconnections between ecological crisis, social injustice, and cultural degradation. Such a holistic approach would enable us to review and rethink energy projects in the Amazon.

The Catholic Church’s call for an ecological conversion challenges greenwashing. We need an authentic energy transition that does not ignore Indigenous peoples or local communities but rather places them at the center of decision-making.

Indigenous peoples have historically been the custodians of the Amazon. Their development models are based on sustainability and respect for the land. These peoples have developed sustainable natural resource management practices that align with the principles of integral ecology.

Indigenous peoples’ resistance to mining projects and large hydroelectric infrastructure is not an opposition to progress. It is a defense of a way of life that has enabled the conservation of biodiversity for centuries.

Toward a Just and Responsible Energy Transition

The solution is not to reject renewable energy, but to find a development model that respects the rights of Indigenous Peoples. We cannot continue the pattern of exploitation and dispossession that characterizes the current extractive model. Some key proposals for moving toward a just and responsible transition include:

Local and community-based renewable energy: Design solar, wind, and hydroelectric energy projects with the active participation of local communities. This is the only way to ensure benefits reach the affected populations directly and that projects do not result in land dispossession or ecosystem destruction.

Local governance systems: This is essential to ensure that decisions about land use are made by Indigenous Peoples, in collaboration with local stakeholders and state authorities. Make free, prior, and informed consultation processes the norm, not the exception.

Community-led ecological restoration: Indigenous Peoples have vast knowledge of how to restore and protect the Amazon. Recognize and value this knowledge in ecological restoration and conservation projects.

Public policies that promote territorial sovereignty and social justice: Promote government policies in the Amazon region that respect the autonomy of Indigenous peoples. Push governments to guarantee Indigenous peoples’ active participation in decision-making regarding their territories.

The diverse cultures and ecosystems of the Amazon represent a wealth of knowledge that can guide a true ecological conversion. (Programa Universitario Amazónico)

Reduce global energy use, toward a steady state economy: Recognize that all forms of energy production cause ecological and social impacts. Strive to decrease overall energy consumption, especially in wealthy communities, in tandem with the renewable energy transition.

Greenwashing in the Amazon is not only an ecological problem, but also a direct threat to Indigenous peoples. If the renewable energy transition is to be “just,” it must be designed in a way that respects the rights, cultures, and autonomy of local communities. Governments and developers must enable their participation and integrate their knowledge in the decision-making process.

Mauricio López is the founding director of the Amazon University Program and lay vice president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon.