06 – Energy politics: When fossil fuels turn into renewables

How does energy politics work in conflict-affected states? In this second episode of the Humanitarianism and Transitions to a Low-Carbon Future miniseries, Ekatherina Zhukova, Senior Lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, and Kristin Doughty, Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of Rochester in the United States, discuss the competing perceptions of environmental risk in conflict-affected states and the possibilities of a “do nothing scenario” in the face of a collateral damage to the local population. Based on Doughty’s collaborative work with Elyseé Uwimana and Dieudonné Uwizeye on the methane gas extraction from the Lake Kivu in Rwanda, this episode explores the concept of “Green Extractive Humanitarianism” which helps reveal the tension between the necessity of providing people with electricity and the continuation of extracting natural resources in the Global South. Zhukova and Doughty also discuss the importance of longitudinal ethnography and how understanding energy politics in the Global South can help us better comprehend the workings of energy in the Global North.