Energy is vital. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that worldwide energy consumption will rise by 40% by 2030. Energy sources and consumption are unevenly distributed throughout the world. Although most of the natural deposits and production areas are situated in the developing countries, the high energy consumers are the industrialised and emerging nations. In contrast, 2 billion people in the developing countries have no access to electricity; half the world's population (about 3 billion people) still relies on traditional energy resources (e.g. firewood).

What are the CONSEQUENCES of tapping into energy sources?
The consequences of energy production are easily overlooked. The exploitation of both fossil and farmed energy sources in the developing countries often goes hand in hand with human rights abuses, forced displacements, increased poverty, violent conflict, massive environmental damage and climate change.

Oil extraction in the Gulf of Guinea since the mid-1950s has led to the widespread devastation of traditional environments and livelihoods, and agricultural neglect. Corrupt elites help themselves to oil revenues amounting to millions of US dollars each year, while the majority of people are forced to live in abject poverty without a modicum of social infrastructure such as health care and educational facilities.

Uranium mines in India blatantly contravene safety regulations and environmental standards, despite protestations to the contrary by the operators, Uranium Corporation of India Limited. MISEREOR's partner, Mines Monitoring Centre, has reported the disastrous consequences. Contamination of the soil and drinking water is severely compromising the food security of the largely indigenous population. Radioactive contamination of the environment has led to high rates of birth defects, premature births and a sharply increased risk of cancer. The local population is not warned about these mining-related problems. In order to satisfy the increased demand for nuclear energy in India and on world markets, new areas are tapped without the informed consent of the local people affected.

The continual expansion of sugar cane plantations in Brazil for the production of ethanol is further aggravating land ownership concentration, displacing food crops and reducing the likelihood of true agricultural reform in the interests of small farmers and the landless. Low production costs come at the price of catastrophic working conditions and low wages for seasonal cane cutters. The pressure on already threatened natural landscapes such as the Amazon region is mounting.

Local populations are often forcibly evicted in order to make way for new palm oil plantations for Indonesia’s biodiesel industry, while the associated felling of forests destroys the traditional basis of these people’s livelihoods.

The MISEREOR approach
In the interests of ecological and distributive justice, it is imperative to ascertain who are the winners and the losers from natural energy resources, and how the revenue is spent. MISEREOR supports an equitable and transparent distribution of natural resource revenues in support of poverty reduction and sustainable development, without destroying the livelihoods of the local people. The free, prior and informed consent of affected communities must be obtained before new energy projects are implemented. Their right to decline projects which would violate their interests must be respected. Those people who speak out against the corruption, human rights abuses and environmental damage caused by energy exploitation must not suffer discrimination or persecution. And finally, the path to sustainability must primarily be paved by a transformation of energy systems in the industrialised world, accompanied by a massive reduction in consumption there.

This calls for a major
reorientation of energy policy, as well as business
and consumer expectations.