Socio-environmental liabilities of coal mining in colombia: a political ecology approach to the global coal chain
- Autores: Andrea Carolina Cardoso Diaz
- Directores de la Tesis: Joan Martínez Alier (dir. tes.), Giorgos Kallis (tut. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ( España ) en 2016
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Begüm Ozkaynak Ortakoyluoglu (presid.), Katharine Nora Farrell (secret.), Lorenzo Pellegrini (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología Ambientales por la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
- Enlaces
- Resumen
The expansion of coal mining in the Caribbean region of Colombia not only creates environmental and health problems locally but is also a matter of global concern. Colombia, with almost 85 million tons exported, makes a large contribution to greenhouse gas emissions when the exported coal is burnt in coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) in importing countries, such as The Netherlands and Turkey. This is ever more relevant as the commitments from COP21 in Paris imply that four-fifths of carbon resources (from coal, oil, and gas) must remain under the ground.
This thesis uses ecological economics and political ecology approaches to analyze the coal supply chain from its extraction in the open-pit coal mines in Cesar and La Guajira (Colombia) to the final consumption in CFPPs in The Netherlands and Turkey. It also employs the socio-environmental liability approach as an improvement over the standard externalities framework, since it allows for an explicit incorporation of responsibilities for uncompensated damages along the coal chain.
The coal chain is analyzed in depth through different layers (market, physical, socio-environmental liabilities, social actors and the plurality of valuation languages) and different scales (local, national and global).
In order to identify the coal chain socio-environmental liabilities and ecological distribution conflicts, 84 interviews were conducted in Colombia, The Netherlands and Turkey. Different economic valuation methods were used to estimate the value of the socio-environmental liabilities, and discourse analysis methodologies were used to analyze the plurality of valuation languages deployed along the coal chain.
Results show that the socio-environmental liabilities of the coal extraction and its transport to export ports exceeds the market price of coal. The analysis of the ecological distribution conflicts reveals that the geographies of coal are anchored in environmental injustices and democratic deficits associated with both coal mining and CFPPs, and irreconcilable tensions between public health, economic gain and the political power in these three countries. The analysis of the valuation languages shows that in The Netherlands there are two main views regarding coal imports from Colombia, respectively the “Blood coal” and “Better coal” positions. The first one is concerned about human rights violations and the second one frames the question in the context of ecological modernization. In Turkey, the main debate is between the use of highly polluting domestic lignite or the import of better quality coal (anthracite from Colombia). Both in The Netherlands and in Turkey there are different degrees of concern about climate change and “unburnable fuels” which appear still to be absent in Colombia where the debate is focused on the local and national socio-environmental liabilities. This thesis concludes that the success of environmental justice actions taken along the coal chain depends on the political power of social actors and their willingness to give up, negotiate or impose their own valuation languages.
