This story was produced in partnership with the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Australia’s multi-cultural and multilingual broadcaster. SBS correspondent Aneeta Bhole reported from the Northern Territory.
The contents of Norman Frank’s fridge could mean the difference between life and death. His doctor told him to drink cold water for his kidney trouble, and to keep his medicines, which help manage his diabetes and other health problems, chilled. But he doesn’t have a full-time job, and struggles to afford electricity.
So Frank, a 49-year-old Warumungu Traditional Owner—a term used in Australia to describe members of an Aboriginal group with historical claims to land—uses the power he gets from the utility company sparingly. And he says what he does use is expensive. For the home where he lives with his wife and five children in Tennant Creek, a town on the fringes of Australia’s vast Northern Territory deserts, the monthly electric bill runs about $200, he says. After other necessities like rent and food, he’s left with almost nothing of his government disability pension at the end of the month.
In July, the nonprofit Original Power, an Aboriginal community organization that focuses on energy issues, helped Frank install solar panels that stretch about half the length of the roof of his government-owned one-story, three-bedroom house, as part of a campaign to help Aboriginal people overcome barriers to accessing renewable energy. With almost 300 sunny days per year, Tennant Creek has some of the clearest skies in the world. But although the physical infrastructure to produce solar energy may be in place on Frank’s roof, the Northern Territory has not yet produced the corresponding bureaucratic infrastructure that will allow him to use it. It’s a matter not of science but of tariff systems, prepaid meters and permissions, and without all of them, the solar panels are useless to Frank.
Meanwhile, three hours north of Frank’s home, up a two-lane highway that slices through desert scrub, sits the proposed site of what could be the world’s largest solar farm. The $22 billion Sun Cable project would generate 17 to 20 gigawatts of solar power, equivalent to about 30% of what Australia’s current grids can deliver. But the project is not meant to help power Frank’s home, and it won’t alleviate the crippling energy poverty faced by many Aboriginal communities across Australia’s vast interior. The electricity it generates will be sent to Darwin, the capital and largest city of the Northern Territory, and to Singapore, via a 2,600-mile undersea cable. This isn’t a new phenomenon. Extractive industries like mineral mining and fossil fuels have made Australia one of the richest countries in the world, but that wealth has accrued unequally, often bypassing the people who live on the land that is exploited.
For the world to reach net-zero emissions, solar panels and wind turbines will need to cover great expanses of the earth, and the extraction of minerals like lithium, crucial for the batteries that store power, will need to rise exponentially. All of this will require vast swaths of undeveloped land, which includes territories around the globe under the ownership or stewardship of Indigenous people.
In Australia, advocates and activists hope that the renewable push will be an opportunity to reset a historically toxic relationship between many Aboriginal communities and large-scale developers building on their land, and to address the need for more affordable energy, especially as climate change pushes temperatures to extremes. Whether Australia can transform itself into a renewable-energy superpower will also be crucial for the world’s fight against climate change. Including its fossil-fuel exports, the country’s footprint is about 5% of global emissions—despite having just about 0.33% of the world’s population—according to the advocacy group Climate Analytics.
But Australia’s nascent green-energy revolution may already be leaving Aboriginal people behind. “Some of us aren’t transitioning out of anything,” says Karrina Nolan, a descendant of the Yorta Yorta people and the executive director of Original Power. “We haven’t even enjoyed some of the benefits other people have had from coal mining for the last century. Some of our people don’t even have power.”
More than 40% of Australia’s landmass is under Native Title, a law recognizing Aboriginal people have varying rights to live or hunt on the land. The relationship with the land is a fundamental part of Aboriginal identity. Modern Australian law, however, takes a less holistic view; Native Title is not the same as ownership, and Aboriginal people typically can’t veto proposed projects on native-titled land that they don’t want. Developers are required only to negotiate “in good faith” for six months to try to reach an agreement with the community. Sometimes, voluntary agreements include millions of dollars in compensation and other benefits like guaranteed jobs and investment in local infrastructure. But in other cases, they do not. Further, these are entirely voluntary—projects can proceed apace even if a community holding Native Title never agrees.
The legal situation reflects a stark imbalance of power between resource companies, which are some of the richest and most politically connected entities in Australia, and Aboriginal people. Peter Yu, a Yawuru man who is the former executive director of the Kimberley Land Council, an Aboriginal land-rights organization in northwest Australia, notes that Aboriginal people make up only around 3% of the Australian population: “We offer very little in terms of that in a political, parliamentary sense. So, we’re vulnerable and powerless in that regard.”
In addition, despite some gains after generations of discrimination, Aboriginal people as a group earn about 40% less and face unemployment rates over three times as high as non-Aboriginal Australians. Outcomes are especially bad in remote communities, where there is less economic opportunity. There are efforts to change that, but Aboriginal people especially remain marginalized and often don’t have the business, legal or financial experience—or the money— to effectively negotiate with large powerful companies.
Negotiations between private companies and Aboriginal groups are often facilitated by local land councils, organizations that help Aboriginal groups manage their traditional lands. When large companies offer royalty payments to get local buy-in, it can be enticing for such councils, given that they are often tasked with acting on behalf of communities without other revenue sources. But even when companies promise things like jobs and to boost the local economy, experts say, they often overpromise and underdeliver.
Sun Cable’s project is ambitious: to pair the world’s largest solar farm with the world’s most powerful battery, and transport the resulting power to Asia via the world’s longest undersea cable. And there’s been a lot of hype about the benefits it will have—for some. For example, during an Oct. 20 press conference, Eva Lawler, the Northern Territory minister for renewables and energy, said the project had already resulted in $1.7 million in spending at 70 businesses over the last financial year in Darwin, where Sun Cable is building a solar-panel-manufacturing facility. The Sun Cable project, officially dubbed the Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink), she said, “will be a huge boost to the Territory’s economy.”
But those promises and press releases stand in contrast to the vague commitments that locals and activists say have been made to provide jobs and other benefits in remote communities—demonstrating that the company may be more focused on securing buy-in from government officials and getting the project, which they say is in embryonic stages, off the ground, than on the impact it will have at the local level. When asked how she’d like to see major projects like the AAPowerLink benefit remote communities, Lawler said the Sun Cable project is “a very different project to what we are talking about, necessarily, in our remote communities. In our remote communities at this stage, the demands are very small. The Sun Cable project is a huge project. That’s more about—that’s private enterprise, but that’s more about focusing on exporting energy to Asia.”
Sun Cable CEO David Griffin said in an Oct. 25 email that the company is committed to comprehensive engagement with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal stakeholders, that it is working on a benefit plan that will include things like local procurement and workforce training, and that it is collaborating with land councils, which have a statutory responsibility to identify Native Title holders where proposed projects might take place. He said the company will seek to put in place voluntary agreements with impacted Traditional Owners providing “enduring positive outcomes.” “This process takes time to identify, reach and consult with all those Traditional Owners affected by the project and the multiple communities and interest groups involved,” he said.
The Northern Land Council, which represents some Aboriginal groups whose land will be impacted by the project, said in an email that it would “facilitate consultations” about such an agreement, but declined to comment on who from the communities should be approached about proposed projects or what had been done so far. Despite the promise of benefits and engagement, over a dozen people who told TIME and the Special Broadcasting Service in late September they have ancestral connections to land in Powell Creek also said they had not been fully informed about the local benefits of the project.
It’s symptomatic of a disconnect that environmental groups say demands urgent attention, with several large-scale renewable-energy projects proposed to be built on Aboriginal land in Australia. “We need to think of ways to configure the world differently,” says Kirsty Howey, the co-director of the Environment Centre Northern Territory, “because what we’ve been doing has created and entrenched not just climate change itself, but gross inequalities.”
About 45 sq. mi. of dusty scrubland around Powell Creek Station, an uninhabited block of land that was once a telegraph outpost, have been earmarked for Sun Cable’s solar farm, according to the company’s website. Many of the Traditional Owners of that land live in the blink-and-you-miss-it town of Elliott, an hour-and-a-half drive away.
People here take extreme measures to save on power and adapt to the heat. It’s not uncommon for an entire family to sleep in one room so that only one air-conditioning unit needs to run overnight. Others move their mattresses outside, where it’s cooler at night. It’s standard operation to keep flashlights and camping lanterns around the house to use instead of turning on the lights.
“It’s cooler when you’ve got the lights off … I sit here just under the fan. I’ve got one air-con that I don’t use,” Elizabeth Henderson, a Mudburra woman who lives in the town, said in September, which in Australia is the first month of spring. “I’ve got the windows open, it’s all right.” Outside, there was almost no movement on the streets at midday, as people sheltered from the 97°F heat. Inside, the homes were mostly dark, lit only by the sunlight coming in through open doors and windows.
Elliott is a tight-knit community, and a conversation with one resident about the Sun Cable project quickly turned into a gathering of more than 20, many of whom went between discussing the issue in English and in Jingili and Mudburra, two of several languages spoken in the area. Many were angry that they did not know more about development plans—they had heard about a meeting being held in Elliott, but were unsure about dates or how to attend. Some said they’d heard that Sun Cable had spoken directly to a few locals about the plans and meeting, but those locals had not distributed the information to the rest of the community.
“We have a past through Powell Creek; it’s our great-grandmothers’ traditional land and now it’s our land,” said Dan Bostock, 41, a Jingili and Mudburra man. “We are the right people to talk to and deserve to know what’s going on and what’s going to be carried on throughout our land.” Bostock says he did attend one meeting about Sun Cable’s planned location, where he asked company representatives what the local benefits would be—he recalls specifically asking whether the project could help provide electricity to the community. He also recalls getting no clear answer.
This sort of discord isn’t inherent in renewable-energy development. Indeed, there are more than 100 medium- to large-scale clean-energy projects operating across Canada that have active Indigenous ownership or co-ownership, and a slew of government policies and programs aimed at helping Indigenous communities access financing. For example, about 1,000 miles north of Vancouver in the shadow of the northern Rocky Mountains, the Fort Nelson First Nation is working to transform an almost depleted natural gas field into a geothermal-energy project. The project is expected to generate up to 15 megawatts of electricity in its initial phase—enough to power about 10,000 homes. Fort Nelson First Nation plans to use excess heat to warm homes in the area and build dozens of greenhouses to grow food during the frigid winter months, when temperatures hover around 0°F. “Major projects are one of the few development opportunities that can bring meaningful change to our communities,” says Sharleen Gale, the chief of the Fort Nelson First Nation. “We think that this geothermal project is really a gift from our ancestors, being able to harness the heat from the earth.”
Across the U.S. border, on the windswept Great Plains, six Native American tribes have formed the Oceti Sakowin Power Authority (OSPA), which is working to bring the first utility-scale wind-power projects to tribal lands. “These are our natural resources, our lands. I think we should have a say over how they’re used,” says Lyle Jack, the chairman of OSPA.
Even elsewhere in Australia—some 2,000 miles from Elliott, on the southwestern coast of the country—another renewable-energy megaproject is putting itself forward as an example of how the green-energy revolution could develop alongside Aboriginal people. The $75 billion Western Green Energy Hub (WGEH) will take up an area larger than Connecticut, on the traditional lands of the Western Australia Mirning People. The Mirning have been given a minority equity stake in WGEH, as well as a permanent seat on the board of the consortium running the project. Its corporate charter also includes promises to create “shared well-being,” not to undertake activities on Mirning land that they don’t agree with, and to recognize and try to fix the “historic and ongoing disadvantage” that Aboriginal people face.
Brendan Hammond, the chairman of the board of the WGEH, says that although there aren’t laws mandating that it partner with the Mirning in this way, he thinks a new playbook is necessary for how project developers engage with local communities. “Legislation is put there as a bare-minimum criteria,” he says. “Our job is to operate not just inside the guardrails, but way, way, way, way, way beyond.”
Some opposition lawmakers are pushing for legislation to enforce greater cooperation in Australia. Independent member of parliament Helen Haines has introduced legislation that would establish an agency to support the development of community-driven renewable-energy projects. It also sets out a requirement for any new large-scale renewable developments to offer 20% of the ownership to local communities. Haines says the plan would ensure that there is “genuine and legitimate consultation with local communities,” but it remains unclear how such communities could afford to put up the funds for that sort of stake in multibillion-dollar projects.
No matter what the law sets out, some businesspeople with experience in mining say it’s simply bad business not to offer wide-ranging benefits to Aboriginal communities when undertaking projects in them. “There’s lots of agreements in place with mining companies which are very transactional, like, you pay us the money and we’ll just look the other way, and ultimately they fail everybody,” says Bruce Harvey, who spent more than 30 years at mining giant Rio Tinto. For example, he points to plans by foreign developers to build a wind park in Oaxaca, Mexico, which triggered protests—and the suspension of the project—from Indigenous communities claiming that adequate consultation had not occurred. And on the flip side, he notes how when the company OZ Minerals wanted to develop a copper mine in South Australia, the firm created a comprehensive partnership agreement with the Kokatha People living on the land, and the two groups now work together on a wide range of issues.
Harvey says renewable-energy projects, which may be in operation for decades, have a special responsibility to build better ties with local communities—to ensure that sustainability is defined by respect not just for the land but also for its historic stewards. “Presuming that you’ve got a green halo because you’re in a renewable-energy business doesn’t mean you automatically will be doing everything that’s acceptable and right by local people,” he says. “If you’re paying homage to a global concern, very frequently you’re riding roughshod over local concerns.” —With reporting by Eloise Barry/London
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Hii ni sehemu ya mpango wa Shirika la Utangazaji wa Mawasiliano (SBS) la Australia, ambalo ni shirika la utangazaji la lugha nyingi na la kitamaduni. Mwandishi wa habari wa SBS Aneeta Bhole aliripoti kutoka Eneo la Kaskazini. Yaliyomo katika friji ya Norman Frank yangeweza kumaanisha tofauti kati ya uhai na kifo. Daktari wake alimwambia anywe maji baridi kwa ajili ya matatizo yake ya figo, na kuweka dawa zake, ambazo husaidia kusimamia ugonjwa wake wa kisukari na matatizo mengine ya afya, baridi. Lakini hana kazi ya wakati wote, na anajitahidi kulipia umeme. Frank, mwenye umri wa miaka 49, ambaye ni mmiliki wa jadi wa Warungungu - neno linalotumiwa nchini Australia kuelezea wanachama wa kikundi cha Waaborijini wenye madai ya kihistoria ya ardhi - anatumia nguvu anayopokea kutoka kwa kampuni ya huduma kwa kiasi. Na anasema kile anachotumia ni ghali. Kwa mfano, katika mji wa Tennant Creek, Australia, ambapo anaishi na mke na watoto watano, gharama za umeme zinafikia dola 200 kwa mwezi. Baada ya mahitaji mengine kama vile kodi na chakula, amebaki na karibu chochote cha pensheni yake ya ulemavu ya serikali mwishoni mwa mwezi. Shirika la asili la asili la asili, ambalo linashughulikia masuala ya nishati, lilimsaidia Frank kuanzisha paneli za jua ambazo zinaenea karibu nusu ya urefu wa paa la nyumba yake ya ghorofa moja na vyumba vitatu, kama sehemu ya kampeni ya kuwasaidia watu wa asili kushinda vizuizi vya kupata nishati mbadala. Kwa kuwa kuna siku 300 za jua kwa mwaka, eneo la Tennant Creek lina anga safi sana. Lakini ingawa miundombinu ya kimwili ya kuzalisha nishati ya jua inaweza kuwa mahali pa paa la Frank, Eneo la Kaskazini bado halijazalisha miundombinu inayolingana ya uburudani ambayo itamruhusu kuitumia. Si suala la sayansi bali la mifumo ya ushuru, mita za kulipia mapema na ruhusa, na bila yote hayo, paneli za jua hazina faida kwa Frank. Wakati huo huo, saa tatu kaskazini mwa nyumba ya Frank, juu ya barabara kuu ya mistari miwili ambayo hupitia vichaka vya jangwa, iko tovuti iliyopendekezwa ya kile kinachoweza kuwa shamba kubwa zaidi la jua ulimwenguni. Mradi wa Sun Cable, unaolipwa dola bilioni 22, utazalisha nguvu ya jua ya gigawati 17 hadi 20, sawa na asilimia 30 ya kile ambacho mitandao ya sasa ya Australia inaweza kutoa. Lakini mradi huo haukusudiwa kusaidia umeme wa nyumba ya Frank, na hautatatua umaskini wa nishati unaokandamiza ambao jamii nyingi za Wenyeji wa Australia wanakabiliwa nao katika eneo kubwa la ndani la Australia. Nishati itakayotokezwa itatumwa hadi Darwin, mji mkuu na mji mkubwa wa Wilaya ya Kaskazini, na Singapore, kupitia kebo ya chini ya bahari ya maili 2,600. Hii si jambo jipya. Viwanda vya uchimbaji kama vile madini na mafuta vimefanya Australia kuwa moja ya nchi tajiri zaidi duniani, lakini utajiri huo umekua kwa njia isiyo sawa, mara nyingi ukipitia watu wanaoishi kwenye ardhi inayotumiwa. Ili ulimwengu kufikia uzalishaji wa hewa wa sifuri, paneli za jua na turbines za upepo zitahitaji kufunika maeneo makubwa ya dunia, na uchimbaji wa madini kama lithiamu, muhimu kwa betri ambazo huhifadhi nguvu, itahitaji kuongezeka kwa kasi. Hii itahitaji maeneo makubwa ya ardhi ambayo hayajatengenezwa, ambayo ni pamoja na maeneo kote duniani chini ya umiliki au usimamizi wa watu wa asili. "Wanajamii nchini Australia wana matumaini kwamba msukumo wa nishati mbadala utakuwa fursa ya kuanzisha tena uhusiano wa kihistoria wenye sumu kati ya jamii nyingi za Wenyeji wa Asili na watengenezaji wakubwa wanaojenga kwenye ardhi yao, na kushughulikia hitaji la nishati ya bei nafuu, haswa wakati mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa yanaongeza joto kwa kiwango cha juu. """ Ikiwa Australia inaweza kujifanya kuwa nguvu kubwa ya nishati inayobadilika pia itakuwa muhimu kwa mapambano ya ulimwengu dhidi ya mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa. Pamoja na mauzo ya nje ya mafuta ya makaa ya mawe, alama ya nchi hiyo ni karibu 5% ya uzalishaji wa kimataifa, licha ya kuwa na karibu 0.33% ya idadi ya watu duniani, kulingana na kundi la utetezi la Climate Analytics. Lakini huenda tayari mapinduzi ya nishati ya kijani-kibichi yanayotokea Australia yamewaachia Wenyeji wa Asili nyuma. "Wengine wetu hatuko katika mabadiliko ya chochote", anasema Karrina Nolan, mzao wa watu wa Yorta Yorta na mkurugenzi mtendaji wa Original Power. <unk>Hatujawahi hata kufurahia baadhi ya faida watu wengine wamekuwa na kutoka uchimbaji wa makaa ya mawe kwa karne iliyopita. Zaidi ya asilimia 40 ya ardhi ya Australia iko chini ya Native Title, sheria inayotambua watu wa asili wana haki tofauti za kuishi au kuwinda kwenye ardhi. Uhusiano na ardhi ni sehemu muhimu ya utambulisho wa Wenyeji wa Asili. Sheria ya kisasa ya Australia, hata hivyo, inachukua mtazamo mdogo wa jumla; Native Title si sawa na umiliki, na watu wa asili kwa kawaida hawawezi kupiga kura dhidi ya miradi iliyopendekezwa kwenye ardhi ya asili ambayo hawataki. Watengenezaji wanahitajika tu kujadili "kwa imani njema" kwa miezi sita kujaribu kufikia makubaliano na jamii. Mikataba ya hiari ya kimataifa hujumuisha mamilioni ya dola katika fidia na faida nyingine kama vile kazi zilizoahidiwa na uwekezaji katika miundombinu ya ndani. Lakini katika visa vingine, hawafanyi hivyo. Zaidi ya hayo, hizi ni mradi wa hiari kabisa - miradi inaweza kuendelea kwa kasi hata kama jamii inayomiliki Native Title haikubali kamwe. Hali ya kisheria inaonyesha ukosefu mkubwa wa usawa wa nguvu kati ya makampuni ya rasilimali, ambayo ni baadhi ya matajiri na zaidi kisiasa kushikamana mashirika katika Australia, na watu wa asili. Peter Yu, aliyekuwa mkurugenzi mtendaji wa Kimberley Land Council, shirika la haki za ardhi la wenyeji wa Australia kaskazini magharibi, anasema kwamba wenyeji wa Australia ni asilimia 3 tu ya idadi ya watu wa Australia. "Kwa hivyo, sisi ni dhaifu na hatuna nguvu katika suala hilo. ""Kwa kuongezea, licha ya baadhi ya faida baada ya vizazi vya ubaguzi, watu wa asili kama kikundi hupata karibu 40% chini na wanakabiliwa na viwango vya ukosefu wa ajira zaidi ya mara tatu kama wa Australia wasio wa asili." Matokeo ni mabaya hasa katika jamii za mbali, ambapo kuna fursa ndogo za kiuchumi. Kuna juhudi za kubadilisha hilo, lakini watu wa asili hasa kubaki marginalized na mara nyingi hawana biashara, kisheria au kifedha uzoefu au fedha kwa ufanisi kujadili na makampuni makubwa nguvu. Mazungumzo kati ya makampuni ya kibinafsi na vikundi vya Wenyeji wa Asili mara nyingi huendelezwa na halmashauri za ardhi za mahali hapo, mashirika ambayo husaidia vikundi vya Wenyeji wa Asili kusimamia ardhi zao za jadi. Wakati makampuni makubwa yanapotoa malipo ya haki za wamiliki ili kupata ununuzi wa ndani, inaweza kuwa ya kuvutia kwa halmashauri kama hizo, kwa kuzingatia kwamba mara nyingi wana jukumu la kutenda kwa niaba ya jamii bila vyanzo vingine vya mapato. Hata hivyo, hata kampuni zinazotarajia kujenga uchumi wa eneo hilo, mara nyingi zinatoa ahadi nyingi sana na hazitimizi. Mradi wa SunCable ni wa kutamani: kuunganisha shamba kubwa zaidi la jua duniani na betri yenye nguvu zaidi ulimwenguni, na kusafirisha nguvu inayotokana na hilo kwenda Asia kupitia kebo ndefu zaidi ya chini ya bahari ulimwenguni. Na kumekuwa na hype nyingi kuhusu faida itakuwa na kwa baadhi. "Kwa mfano, katika mkutano wa waandishi wa habari wa Oktoba 20, Eva Lawler, waziri wa nishati na nishati wa Wilaya ya Kaskazini, alisema mradi huo tayari umesababisha $ 1.7 milioni katika matumizi katika biashara 70 katika mwaka wa fedha uliopita huko Darwin, ambapo SunCable inajenga kituo cha utengenezaji wa paneli za jua. """ Mradi wa Sun Cable, unaoitwa rasmi Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink), alisema, "utaongeza sana uchumi wa eneo hilo," lakini ahadi hizo na taarifa za vyombo vya habari zinapingana na ahadi zisizo wazi ambazo wakazi na wanaharakati wanasema zimetolewa kutoa kazi na faida nyingine katika jamii za mbali, kuonyesha kwamba kampuni hiyo inaweza kuwa imezingatia zaidi kupata ununuzi kutoka kwa maafisa wa serikali na mradi huo, ambao wanasema ni katika hatua za kiinitete, kuanza. Alipoulizwa jinsi angependa kuona miradi mikubwa kama AAPowerLink inanufaisha jamii za mbali, Lawler alisema mradi wa Sun Cable ni "mradi tofauti sana na kile tunachozungumzia, lazima, katika jamii zetu za mbali. Katika jamii zetu za mbali katika hatua hii, mahitaji ni madogo sana. Mradi wa Sun Cable ni mradi mkubwa sana. "Mwanzilishi wa Sun Cable, David Griffin, alisema katika barua pepe ya Oktoba 25 kwamba kampuni hiyo imejitolea kushirikiana kwa kina na wadau wa asili na wasio wa asili, kwamba inafanya kazi kwenye mpango wa faida ambao utajumuisha vitu kama ununuzi wa ndani na mafunzo ya wafanyikazi, na kwamba inashirikiana na halmashauri za ardhi, ambazo zina jukumu la kisheria la kutambua wamiliki wa jina la asili ambapo miradi inayopendekezwa inaweza kutokea. """ "Mwanzilishi wa mradi huo alisema kampuni hiyo itajaribu kuweka makubaliano ya hiari na wamiliki wa jadi waliohusika kutoa ""matokeo mazuri ya kudumu"" na ""mchakato huu unachukua muda kutambua, kufikia na kushauriana na wamiliki wote wa jadi waliohusika na mradi huo na jamii nyingi na vikundi vya maslahi vinavyohusika.""" Baraza la Ardhi la Kaskazini, ambalo linawakilisha baadhi ya makundi ya Wenyeji wa Asili ambao ardhi yao itaathiriwa na mradi huo, limesema katika barua pepe kwamba "itawezesha mashauriano" juu ya makubaliano kama hayo, lakini lilikataa kutoa maoni juu ya ni nani kutoka kwa jamii wanapaswa kuwasiliana juu ya miradi iliyopendekezwa au nini kilichokuwa kimefanywa hadi sasa. "Licha ya ahadi ya faida na ushiriki, zaidi ya watu kumi na wawili ambao waliwaambia TIME na Huduma Maalum ya Utangazaji mwishoni mwa Septemba wana uhusiano wa ukoo na ardhi katika Powell Creek pia walisema hawakuarifiwa kabisa juu ya faida za ndani za mradi huo. """ Ni dalili ya kutokuunganishwa ambayo makundi ya mazingira wanasema inahitaji tahadhari ya haraka, na miradi kadhaa ya nishati mbadala ya kiwango kikubwa imependekezwa kujengwa kwenye ardhi ya Wenyeji wa Asili nchini Australia. "Tunahitaji kufikiria njia za kuunda ulimwengu tofauti, ""anasema Kirsty Howey, mkurugenzi mwenza wa Kituo cha Mazingira cha Wilaya ya Kaskazini, ""kwa sababu kile tunachofanya kimeunda na kuimarisha sio mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa yenyewe, lakini ukosefu mkubwa wa usawa." mimi. Sehemu ya ardhi iliyokuwa karibu na kituo cha Powell Creek, ambayo wakati mmoja ilikuwa kituo cha telegrafu, imewekwa kwa ajili ya shamba la jua la Sun Cable. Wamiliki wengi wa jadi wa ardhi hiyo wanaishi katika mji wa Elliott, ulio umbali wa saa moja na nusu kwa gari. Watu hapa huchukua hatua kali ili kuokoa nishati na kukabiliana na joto. Si jambo lisilo la kawaida kwa familia nzima kulala katika chumba kimoja hivi kwamba ni kifaa kimoja tu cha kuyeyusha hewa kinachohitaji kuendeshwa usiku kucha. Wengine hubeba godoro lao nje, ambapo ni baridi zaidi usiku. Ni operesheni ya kawaida kuweka taa za mkononi na taa za kambi kuzunguka nyumba kutumia badala ya kuwasha taa. "Ni baridi zaidi wakati umefunga taa... Mimi kukaa hapa tu chini ya shabiki. "Nina air condition moja ambayo siitumii,"" alisema Elizabeth Henderson, mwanamke wa Mudburra anayeishi mjini, mwezi Septemba, ambao nchini Australia ni mwezi wa kwanza wa majira ya kuchipua." "Nimefungua madirisha, ni sawa. Nje, hakukuwa na harakati yoyote barabarani saa sita mchana, wakati watu walipokuwa wamekimbilia kutoka joto la digrii 97 F.""" Ndani, nyumba zilikuwa na giza, ziking'aa tu kwa nuru ya jua iliyokuwa ikiingia kupitia milango na madirisha yaliyo wazi. "Mkutano wa mwandishi wa habari wa habari wa habari za habari wa Sun Cable ulianza na watu zaidi ya 20 na wengi wao walijadili suala hilo kwa Kiingereza na kwa Jingili na Mudburrah, lugha mbili kati ya lugha kadhaa zinazozungumzwa katika eneo hilo.""" Wengi walikuwa na hasira kwamba hawakujua zaidi kuhusu mipango ya maendeleo - walikuwa wamesikia kuhusu mkutano uliofanyika katika Elliott, lakini hawakuwa na uhakika kuhusu tarehe au jinsi ya kuhudhuria. Baadhi walisema walisikia kwamba Sun Cable alikuwa amezungumza moja kwa moja na wenyeji wachache kuhusu mipango na mkutano, lakini wenyeji hao hawakuwa wamesambaza habari hiyo kwa jamii yote. "Tuna historia kupitia Powell Creek; ni ardhi ya jadi ya nyanya zetu na sasa ni ardhi yetu, "alisema Dan Bostock, 41, mtu wa Jingili na Mudburra. "Bostock anasema alihudhuria mkutano mmoja kuhusu eneo lililopangwa la Sun Cable, ambapo aliwauliza wawakilishi wa kampuni hiyo ni faida gani za ndani zitakuwa, anakumbuka akiuliza hasa ikiwa mradi huo unaweza kusaidia kutoa umeme kwa jamii.""" Pia anakumbuka kwamba hakupata jibu la wazi. Aina hii ya kutoelewana si asili katika maendeleo ya nishati mbadala. Kwa kweli, kuna zaidi ya miradi 100 ya nishati safi ya kati hadi kubwa inayofanya kazi kote Canada ambayo ina umiliki wa kikaboni au umiliki wa pamoja, na sera nyingi za serikali na programu zinazolenga kusaidia jamii za asili kupata fedha. Kwa mfano, karibu maili 1,000 kaskazini mwa Vancouver, katika kivuli cha Milima ya Rocky ya kaskazini, Taifa la Kwanza la Fort Nelson linafanya kazi ya kubadilisha uwanja wa gesi ya asili ulio karibu kuisha kuwa mradi wa nishati ya joto la ardhi. Mradi huo unatarajiwa kuzalisha umeme wa megawati 15 katika awamu yake ya kwanza, ambayo ni ya kutosha kuwezesha nyumba 10,000 za watu. "Kampuni ya ""Fort Nelson"" imepanga kutumia joto la ziada ili kupasha joto nyumba za eneo hilo na kujenga viwanda vya kuzalisha chakula wakati wa majira ya baridi kali, wakati joto linapozunguka 0 ° F." "Mipango mikubwa ni mojawapo ya fursa chache za maendeleo ambazo zinaweza kuleta mabadiliko ya maana kwa jamii zetu", anasema Sharleen Gale, mkuu wa Taifa la Kwanza la Fort Nelson. "Tunaamini kwamba mradi huu wa joto la ardhi ni zawadi kutoka kwa mababu zetu, kuwa na uwezo wa kutumia joto kutoka duniani. ""Kupitia mpaka wa Marekani, kwenye nyanda kubwa za upepo, makabila sita ya Wenyeji wa Amerika wameunda Mamlaka ya Nishati ya Oceti Sakowin (OSPA), ambayo inafanya kazi kuleta miradi ya kwanza ya nguvu ya upepo kwa ardhi ya kikabila." <unk>Hizi ni rasilimali zetu za asili, ardhi zetu. "Nadhani tunapaswa kuwa na maoni juu ya jinsi wanavyotumiwa, ""alisema Lyle Jack, mwenyekiti wa OSPA." Hata mahali pengine Australia - karibu maili 2,000 kutoka Elliott, kwenye pwani ya kusini magharibi ya nchi - mradi mwingine mkubwa wa nishati mbadala unajitokeza kama mfano wa jinsi mapinduzi ya nishati ya kijani inaweza kuendeleza pamoja na watu wa asili. Mradi wa $ 75 bilioni wa Western Green Energy Hub (WGEH) utachukua eneo kubwa kuliko Connecticut, kwenye ardhi ya jadi ya watu wa Australia Magharibi. Mirning amepewa hisa ndogo katika WGH, pamoja na kiti cha kudumu kwenye bodi ya shirika linaloendesha mradi huo. Mkataba wake wa ushirika pia unajumuisha ahadi za kuunda "ufanisi wa pamoja", kutofanya shughuli kwenye ardhi ya Mirning ambayo hawakubaliani nayo, na kutambua na kujaribu kurekebisha "hasara ya kihistoria na ya kuendelea" ambayo watu wa asili wanakabili. Brendan Hammond, mwenyekiti wa bodi ya WGHH, anasema kwamba ingawa hakuna sheria zinazomruhusu kushirikiana na Miring kwa njia hii, anafikiri kitabu kipya cha michezo ni muhimu kwa jinsi watengenezaji wa mradi wanavyojihusisha na jamii za mitaa. "Sheria huwekwa huko kama vigezo vya chini kabisa", anasema. "Jukumu letu si kufanya kazi ndani ya vizuizi, bali njia, njia, njia, njia, njia zaidi. "" Baadhi ya wabunge wa upinzani wanasisitiza sheria ya kutekeleza ushirikiano mkubwa nchini Australia. """ Mjumbe wa Bunge la Uingereza, Helen Haines, ameweka sheria ya kuanzisha shirika la kusaidia maendeleo ya miradi ya nishati mbadala inayoendeshwa na jamii. Pia inaweka mahitaji kwa maendeleo yoyote mapya ya upya ya kiwango kikubwa kutoa 20% ya umiliki kwa jamii za mitaa. Haines anasema mpango huo utahakikisha kuwa kuna "mashauriano halisi na halali na jamii za mitaa", lakini bado haijulikani jinsi jamii hizo zinaweza kutoa fedha kwa aina hiyo ya hisa katika miradi ya mabilioni ya dola. Haijalishi sheria inaweka nini, baadhi ya wafanyabiashara wenye uzoefu katika uchimbaji madini wanasema ni biashara mbaya tu kutotoa faida nyingi kwa jamii za Wenyeji wa Asili wakati wa kufanya miradi ndani yao. "Kuna makubaliano mengi ya biashara na makampuni ya madini ambayo ni ya kibiashara sana, kama vile, unatulipa pesa na tutaangalia upande mwingine, na hatimaye wanashindwa kila mtu, ""alisema Bruce Harvey, ambaye alitumia zaidi ya miaka 30 katika kampuni kubwa ya madini Rio Tinto." Kwa mfano, anaonyesha mipango ya watengenezaji wa kigeni ya kujenga bustani ya upepo huko Oaxaca, Mexico, ambayo ilisababisha maandamano - na kusimamishwa kwa mradi - kutoka kwa jamii za wenyeji wakidai kwamba mashauriano ya kutosha hayakufanyika. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, kampuni ya OZ Minerals ilifanya mpango wa ""mkataba wa ushirikiano"" na watu wa Kakatha ambao wanaishi katika eneo hilo." "Harvey anasema miradi ya nishati mbadala, ambayo inaweza kuwa katika operesheni kwa miongo kadhaa, ina jukumu maalum la kujenga uhusiano bora na jamii za mitaa, kuhakikisha kwamba uendelevu hufafanuliwa na heshima sio tu kwa ardhi lakini pia kwa wasimamizi wake wa kihistoria. """ "Kudhani kwamba una halo ya kijani kwa sababu uko katika biashara ya nishati mbadala haimaanishi kuwa utafanya kila kitu kinachoweza kukubaliwa na haki na watu wa eneo hilo", anasema. "Kama wewe ni kutoa heshima kwa wasiwasi wa kimataifa, mara nyingi sana wewe ni farasi rough-trod juu ya wasiwasi wa ndani. "" - Recise Barry, ""Mengi zaidi lazima kusoma kutoka TIME"" - Kukutana na Wanawake wa Mwaka wa 2024 - Greta Gerwig ya Next Big Swing - Mashariki ya Palestina, Mwaka mmoja baada ya Derailment - The Closer Trainers: Watu 18 Wanafanya Kazi ya Kukomesha Rangi ya Fedha - Longevity Haionekani Sikuzote Kama Unafikiri - ""The New Antisemitism - The Best Romantic Comedies to Watch on Netflix"" - Weekly" Kujiandikisha kwa Worth Your Time Andika kwa Amy Gunia katika firstname.lastname@example.org