Renewable energy and green extractivism: transitions or reconfigurations?

This article discusses the implications of projects implemented by corporations in the energy sector based on their use of the notions of energy transition, decarbonization and renewable energy. We analyzed documents from business organizations, civil society, the Brazilian government and the United Nations containing data and representations regarding wind power projects and the production of green hydrogen. Interviews were also conducted with women from the quilombola community in Cumbe, located in the municipality of Aracati, in the Brazilian Northeastern state of Ceará, who have been affected by a wind power project. We have sought to develop an analysis that contrasts, on the one hand, the discourse of multilateral institutions and corporations that justify so-called clean energies as a means of combating climate change and, on the other, the perceptions of populations affected by a wind energy project in terms of the impacts and meaning they attribute to such projects.