In the community of Bella Bella on Turtle Island in the western Canadian province of British Columbia, the indigenous Heiltsuk people capture heat from the air through devices for 40 percent of their homes in a plan aimed at sustainable energy sovereignty.
“We use less energy; we pay less and it’s good for our health. The project is consistent with our vision. We need to have a good relationship with nature,” indigenous Heiltsuk Leona Humchitt told IPS during a forum on indigenous micro-grids at the Green Zone climate summit, which the Scottish city has been hosting since Oct. 31.
For indigenous groups, this work means moving towards energy sovereignty so that they are no longer dependent on projects that are alien to local populations, combating energy poverty, paving the transition to less polluting modes and combating the exclusion they suffer in the renewable sector due to government policies and corporate decisions.
The modernisation started in the first quarter of 2021 allowed electricity tariffs to be lowered in annual terms from USD 2880 to about 1200 for each participating household.
In addition, the switch to heat pumps eliminates five tonnes of pollutant emissions per year and has reduced the community’s annual diesel consumption of 2000 litres per household, which is usually supplied by a private hydroelectric plant.
Funded by the Canadian government and non-governmental organisations, the “Switching to Strategic Fuels” project is part of the Heiltsuk Climate Action Plan, which also includes measures such as biofuel and biomass from seaweed and carbon credits from marine ecosystems.
In 2017, more than 250 of Canada’s 292 remote indigenous communities relied on their own micro-grids for electricity generation, especially diesel generators.
The Heiltsuk enterprise, part of the three major Canadian native peoples, is part of a portfolio of indigenous transitional energy initiatives that have been incorporated into the non-governmental Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE), which operates in Canada.
Its Global Social Entrepreneurship Platform was one of the launches at the Green Zone, a parallel open programme of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, whose annual session will close on Friday 12.
ICE has a list of 197 projects, 72 in bioenergy, 127 in energy efficiency and 19 in other alternatives, exceeding one megawatt of installed capacity. These initiatives collectively represent $1492 million in revenues over 10 years.
For Mihskakwan James Harper, an indigenous Cree from Sturgeon Lake in the western Canadian province of Alberta, it is not only about energy sovereignty, but also about community power to dispose of their own resources.
“We modify self-consumption and communities’ benefit from the energy, and so does the land. Without us, we will not achieve the climate goals. We show that indigenous peoples can bring innovation and solutions to the climate crisis,” the development manager at energy company NRStor told IPS.
NRStor Inc. and the Six Nations Grand River Economic Development Corporation in Ontario, a Canadian province, are building the 250 MW, 400-million-dollar Oneida battery storage project in southern Ontario.
The facility, which will prevent some 4.1 million tonnes of pollutant emissions, the largest of its kind in Canada and one of the largest in the world, will provide clean and stable energy capacity by storing renewable energy off-peak and releasing it when demand increases.
ICE estimates $4.3 billion in investments needed to underpin this energy efficiency that would create some 73,000 direct and indirect jobs and more than five million tonnes of carbon dioxide avoided over 10 years.
A slow megawatt
The increase in clean sources has a decisive role to play in achieving one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which underpin the 2030 Agenda and which the international community set out in 2015 for the next 15 years, within the framework of the United Nations.
SDG 7 aims to establish “affordable and clean energy”.
Processes similar to the Canadian ICE are proceeding at a slow pace.
Two projects of the Partnership for Adequate Energy with Indigenous Peoples (REP), launched in 2018 by the non-governmental Grupo Mayor de Pueblos Indígenas para el Desarrollo Sostenible (Major Group of Indigenous Peoples for Sustainable Development), are being implemented in El Salvador and Honduras.
In the first country, it is the “Access to photovoltaic energy for indigenous peoples”, developed since 2020 in partnership with the non-governmental Salvadorian National Indigenous Coordinating Council (Consejo Coordinador Nacional Indígena Salvadoreño).
It is financed with USD 150,000 from the Small Grants Programme of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and consists of the provision of 24 photovoltaic systems to three communities in the village of Guatajiagua, in the eastern department of Morazán.
Photo by Arturo Contreras
In the second nation, the Lenca Indigenous Community Council and the Pro Construction Committee are installing a mini-hydroelectric power plant for the benefit of two Lenca indigenous communities in the municipality of San Francisco de Opalaca, in the department of Intibucá, in the southwest of Honduras.
The project “Hydroelectric power generation for the environmental protection and socio-economic development of the Lenca communities of Plan de Barrios and El Zapotillo”, which started in 2019, benefits from GEF funding of USD 150,000.
Clean alternatives face community distrust due to human rights violations committed by wind, solar and hydroelectric plant owners in countries such as Colombia, Honduras and Mexico, including land dispossession, contracts harmful to local groups, and lack of free consultation prior to project design and adequate information.
The evolution of energy initiatives has been slow, due to funding barriers and the limitations imposed by the covid-19 pandemic.
“Our main interest is to enable access to affordable renewable energy and for indigenous peoples to participate in the projects. These processes should be led by indigenous organisations. Of course, we are interested in participating in the global networks,” Eileen Mairena-Cunningham, REP’s project coordinator, told IPS.
From the always difficult first step, indigenous communities want to accelerate the pace.
In Bella Bella, Canada, the aspiration is to progressively replace diesel with biofuel in vehicles and boats, the latter vital for the fishing community.
“We are not going to electrify transport overnight. We see an opportunity in biodiesel. We have to move forward on that,” Humchitt predicted.
Harper concurred with that vision. “Of course, we want electric cars, as long as they are affordable and meet our needs. We want to move away from diesel. Communities have to lead the process” of local transition, he said.
Mairena-Cunningham stressed that indigenous peoples attach primary importance to participating in global networks.
“Existing projects teach us lessons about what can be done in the territory. There needs to be policies that facilitate indigenous participation and special safeguards for access to territory. Capacity building is also needed,” she said.
Renewable energy can be added to ecological measures that indigenous peoples already use, such as forest protection, biodiversity conservation and water conservation. But their local deployment requires more than just willingness.
IPS wrote this article with the support of Iniciativa Climática de México and the European Climate Foundation.
