<
https://theconversation.com/victims-of-the-green-energy-boom-the-indonesians-facing-eviction-over-a-china-backed-plan-to-turn-their-island-into-a-solar-panel-ecocity-214755>
"I first visited Rempang island in Summer 2022. Greeting me were lush fields
lined with coconut and banana trees, picture-book fishing villages with houses
jutting into the water on stilts, and boats carrying people between the dozens
of islands that dot the Riau archipelago in western Indonesia. I had made the
pleasant, one-hour ferry trip from bustling, glass-and-chrome Singapore. This
felt like another world.
My hosts (an environmental lawyer and an indigenous Melayu community organiser)
and I had reached Rempang from the economic hub of Riau Islands province: the
special manufacturing, trade and logistics zone of Batam. We had gone from
Batam to Rempang by crossing one of the six metal bridges that connect the
islands of Batam, Rempang and Galang. This network of bridges has turned the
islands into an economic zone, now called the Barelang region.
My ongoing research is investigating how the international quest for green
energy is reliant on “sacrificial zones” in developing countries. The
transition to green energy, far from creating a green new deal for all, is
actually reinforcing entrenched inequalities and hierarchies.
I became interested in Rempang when I saw news reports heralding a renewable
energy revolution. Companies from Singapore, Portugal and beyond were signing
agreements to build vast floating solar farms in local reservoirs in the Batam
region. The plan was that the clean energy produced would be transported from
the sunlit western Indonesian islands of Batam, Bulan, and Rempang to energy
intensive Singapore via undersea cable.
But on reaching the islands, and visiting the sites named in the news reports,
I saw no sign of green energy activity. The waters were placid. There was no
solar farm in sight. I shrugged, met friends, ate the freshest possible seafood
at a small Kelong restaurant that was half on land and half in the sea, and
went back to Singapore on the ferry."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
