11-12 December 2025, Lund
The rapid expansion of wind and solar infrastructure in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA), framed as part of sustainability and green energy transitions, raises urgent questions about land and environmental rights, energy and environmental justice, and the resurgence of neo-colonial power relations.
Research has shown that many renewable energy projects are implemented without the consent of the indigenous or local populations, undermining their rights to self-determination, sovereignty, and control over natural resources. This exclusion contributes to the denial of basic human rights and reproduces legacies of colonial domination.
These developments challenge European academia not only to generate new knowledge about emerging forms of extractivism and their impacts, but also to critically reflect on the processes of knowledge production themselves, with caution against reproducing ‘epistemic extractivism’ rooted in, and traditionally associated with, colonial power relations.
CMES hosted a day-and-a-half workshop to critically examine the expanding extractivist frontiers in WANA driven by narratives of sustainable development and green transitions. The presentations and discussions focused on the complex dynamics between renewable energy projects, food production, local environmental defenders, and self-determination movements. It interrogated the role of European academia in shaping knowledge and alternative discourses around green extractivism in the region.
The event brought together scholars from various disciplines and geographies to:
Examine how renewable or ‘green’ energy projects are reshaping socio-ecological landscapes and territories in WANA.
Highlight and understand the local and regional responses and contestations to these developments as well as possible future alternatives.
Reflect critically on the positionality and role played by European academia in constructing narratives that shape and influence these transitions/extractivism and the alliances and networks with regional scholars.
Guest presentations:
Erik Hagen, Western Sahara Resource Watch.
Jacobo Ramirez, Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS. “Reflections: Toward a Just Energy Transition - Balancing Expectations Through Multilevel Action”
Joanna Allan, Centre for International Development at Northumbria. “Saharan Winds: Energy Systems and Aeolian Imaginaries in Western Sahara”.
Julia Choucair Vizoso, Arab Reform Initiative. “Agro-extractivism and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty in WANA”.
Katie Sandwell, The Transnational Institute (TNI). “Green Extractivism & Social Movements in North Africa”
The workshop was organised by Maria Andrea Nardi and Yahia Mahmoud together with members of the Extractivism Research Network (ERN) and funded by Lund University Strategic Research Area Middle-East in the Contemporary World (MECW).