Instead of climate justice and a just energy transition replacing fossil fuels with renewables, the installation of solar parks across southern Honduras tells a tale of corporate profiteering and bullying under the guise of “sustainable development.” Following the 2009 military coup in Honduras during a period known as the narcodictatorship, transnational corporations benefited from deepening privatization, widespread corruption including government involvement in drug trafficking, and excessive incentives to attract private investment in the electricity sector.
The results in one of the hottest and most impoverished regions of the country include broken promises, deforestation and loss of access to productive land and water sources, while temperatures remain on the rise. Communities who stood up and prevented the full installation of the Los Prados solar project, owned by Norwegian firms Scatec, Norfund and KLP Norfund Investments, have faced violent repression, forced displacement and ongoing criminalization.
The Norwegian companies and five other firms also sought to punish the government of former President Xiomara Castro with over a billion dollars in arbitration claims when reforms were passed to revert some of the worst excesses in contracts with electricity companies and to rescue the state electricity company. The pressure that Investor State Dispute Settlement claims (or ISDS) put on the public purse and self-determining decisions in the public and community interest have led to growing criticisms and calls for governments to exit this system.
Join us to learn more about struggles for community self-determination and subsistence in southern Honduras, demands for corporate accountability, an end to ISDS, and the need for real energy democracy and climate justice.
- Samantha Lindo, Network of Women Human Rights Defense Lawyers (RADDH)
- Leonardo Amador, Community of Los Prados 1
- Karen Spring, Honduras Solidarity Network
- Ada Fidelina Pérez, and German Chirinos, Southern Social Environmental Movement for Life (MASSVida)
- Merlenis Pastrana, Community of Costa Azul
Moderated by Feleecia Guillen, IPS
Register for the webinar on zoom with simultaneous Spanish-English interpretation
