Leiden University Student Repository

Drabataitė, Urtė (2022)

Not So Clean Energy: How the SDGs Facilitate Green Grabbing in Morocco

Bachelor thesis | Security Studies (BSc)

The Sustainable Development Goals of the UN aim at promoting initiatives that aid in fighting climate change and creating a more prosperous future. One project that has been greatly celebrated by the UN is Morocco’s Solar Plan and NoorO, which is the largest CSP plant in the world. Yet, the case of NoorO can be said to be an example of green grabbing, which is a puzzling environmental justice issue, that on the surface may seem to be beneficial to climate change mitigation efforts. However, the project led to communities losing their land and livelihoods, so as to create space for the construction of NoorO. By investigating the following research question, “How do the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals facilitate green grabbing, specifically, in the case of the Noor Ouarzazate Solar Power Complex?”, this paper shows how the SDGs enabled green grabbing to occur under the guise of Goals 7 and 13. It is argued that by using language that is both ambiguous and narrow, the SDGs allowed...Show moreThe Sustainable Development Goals of the UN aim at promoting initiatives that aid in fighting climate change and creating a more prosperous future. One project that has been greatly celebrated by the UN is Morocco’s Solar Plan and NoorO, which is the largest CSP plant in the world. Yet, the case of NoorO can be said to be an example of green grabbing, which is a puzzling environmental justice issue, that on the surface may seem to be beneficial to climate change mitigation efforts. However, the project led to communities losing their land and livelihoods, so as to create space for the construction of NoorO. By investigating the following research question, “How do the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals facilitate green grabbing, specifically, in the case of the Noor Ouarzazate Solar Power Complex?”, this paper shows how the SDGs enabled green grabbing to occur under the guise of Goals 7 and 13. It is argued that by using language that is both ambiguous and narrow, the SDGs allowed injustices to fall upon marginalized communities in the Ouarzazate area. As such, effective climate change mitigation has to take into account the realities of all individuals, in order to be successfully achieved.Show less

environmental justice

green grabbing

SDGs

NoorO

renewable energy

Author

Drabataitė, Urtė

Faculty

Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

Supervisors

Hoye, J.M.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en