A Climate of Conflict: Conceptualisations of Sustainable Development in land and environmental conflicts - A case study of Unión Hidalgo, Mexico

The expansion of renewable energy sources to enable a reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions has intensified in many parts of the world. As in other areas of development, this has led to processes that require the use of land and the alteration of existing local landscapes, and therefore cause conflicts with the surrounding population. Indigenous Environmental Human Rights Defenders (EHRDs) from Unión Hidalgo in Oaxaca, Mexico, have shown continued resistance against the construction of wind energy projects in the region by arguing that their collective land rights have been violated and a Free, Prior and Informed Consent did not take place as according to international standards. Taking its point of departure from this conflict situation, the purpose of this study is to understand how prevailing conceptualisations of Sustainable Development - as formulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - are adopted at different scales and shape the lived realities for EHRDs and affected communities in their human rights struggles connected to land and environmental conflicts. The thesis takes a single case-study approach, using a Critical Discourse Analysis and a constructivist view on the influence of power imbalances for knowledge production. It looks at the discursive practices of four key actors (EHRDs, companies, and the government at state and federal level) regarding their perceptions of Sustainable Development, human rights and the windfarms in Unión Hidalgo. Finally, the discussion of findings demonstrates that the defenders’ understandings of Sustainable Development significantly diverge from dominant public discourses of decision-making actors. Such actors create powerful joint discourses that emphasise the need to expand renewable energies in order to move towards meeting their sustainability agendas. This discursive power is combined with historical processes of marginalisation, territorial conflicts and violence, and results in: limited possibilities for a critical reflection on the purpose and management of these windfarms; the disregard of human rights standards and the local community’s interests; as well as an extremely precarious situation for those who speak up to defend their rights, territorial claims and collective identity