Yasuni global - Let's keep it diverse and cool

Bits and bites for a diverse and 'cool' planet

A call for change and different development pathways

The call for a change in direction for our current development pathway is omnipresent. A resolution between the parliamentarian Assembly of EU and Latin America on raw materials trade repeatedly called for a transition and is supported by many civil society organisations and scientists. There is huge consensus on the need for an alternative development pathway. The challenge is clear: whilst fossil fuels have to be left under the ground we cannot ignore the fact that millions of people still face energy poverty and the insecurities this entails1.

To decrease our dependency on fossil fuels our energy systems and consumption patterns must change considerably. By decoupling our concepts of development from fossil fuel use we could strive for a more sustainable future and might even be able to avoid the worst-case scenarios of climate change.

A different way is possible

There are ideas and initiatives we could take which are often rather invisible at the global level. Many of those initiatives provide ideas and practical examples of the steps needed to move towards a more sustainable future. However, we need to give visibility to these ideas and to discuss how they could be implemented on a much wider scale. Here we want to provide a collection of ideas that could bring us towards a post-fossil fuel economy in order to foster open and wide-spread discussion, knowledge exchange and hopefully inspiration and action. 

Acoording to Lohmann and Hildyard (2013, p. 69) "to ‘Yasunize’ is to engage creatively and autonomously in a complex of collective resistance and social construction and reweaving that cannot be reduced to an application of scientific principles or concepts of global governance"2.

We need everyone to engage!

Help us to create initiatives and take practical steps by contributing with your ideas!

 

 

References

[1]  Practical Action (2010), "Poor people's energy outlook 2010". Other years are also available at: http://policy.practicalaction.org/policy-themes/energy/poor-peoples-energy-outlook

[2]  Lohmann, L. and Hildyard, N. (2013), “ENERGY ALTERNATIVES. Surveying the Territory”, Manchester: The Corner House.

 

Feature

Yasuní "is a an initiative questioning extractivism, striving  to strengthen community livelihoods, and a collective investigation of the possibilities of  post-petroleum  civilization,  and  coordinates  with  efforts  developing  different approaches to energy.“ (Lohmann and Hildyard, 2013, p. 69)