Contested visions of sustainable development in conflicts over renewable energy, land, and human rights : a case study of Union Hidalgo, Mexico

Abstract

The so-called ‘green shift’ poses dilemmas in developing sustainable sources of energy while ensuring the respect and protection of the rights of affected communities. The article seeks to advance understanding of how prevailing conceptualisations of Sustainable Development – as formulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – are constructed and adopted at different scales and are implicated in and shape struggles over land and environmental conflicts. The exceptional geographical conditions for wind energy production in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca have led to significant investments in wind energy projects. In Unión Hidalgo, two projects are already in operation, the focus here. A content analysis was carried out of 36 documents published by three key actors involved (local defenders, companies, and the government at the state and federal levels). The results are then triangulated with insights from semi-structured interviews with local environmental defenders. The article shows how rights-based dimensions are perceived in a highly variable way and power relations unfold in discursive practices. That the project was eventually stopped, does, however, suggest the polyvalence of human rights, but that they are highly contingent – in this case, critically, part of social mobilisation, domestic litigation, and extra-territorial obligations of a company headquartered in France, all of which appear to rebalance power asymmetries uncovered in the analysis here.