Renewable energy projects and the trade-offs of sustainable development: Hydroelectric projects, 'eco-system services' and the contested politics

将指导下一代世界经济外交的可持续发展目标推动了全球水电的复兴，以实现其目标，即通过可持续消费和生产、可持续地管理自然资源和对气候变化采取紧急行动来保护地球免受退化。联合国指出，现代能源服务处于全球努力的中心，以推动向绿色经济、消除贫穷和可持续发展的范式转变，尽管研究得出结论，水电项目往往造成高昂的社会和环境成本以及长期的经济取舍，危及生物多样性、土著生计和人权，但水电目前占所有可再生能源发电的65%。此外，涉及自然资源开发的大型项目，无论是可再生能源还是传统形式的能源，都涉及可持续发展的三大支柱(经济、社会、环境)之间的权衡，能源以复杂的方式转化为政治权力。作为地球上生物多样性面积最大的国家，厄瓜多尔处于可持续发展和气候缓解政策的前沿，因此为探索水电项目的权衡和采掘国内部有争议的可再生能源发展政治提供了一个有用的案例研究。这项研究将探索厄瓜多尔能源多样化的尝试，使其摆脱传统的化石燃料，特别侧重于促进该国的水电项目。研究将包括在厄瓜多尔进行的访谈实地调查，以便收集受大型能源项目影响的社区和利益攸关方的经验数据，目的是了解水电项目如何重新定义国家和地方一级可持续能源发展的政治格局和社会理解，以及这揭示了可持续发展和气候缓解政策中的辩论和周围自然资源开发的本地化情况。这项研究的目的是在可持续发展和气候缓解政策以及国际、国家和地方各级不同的电力动态的背景下，将可再生能源项目的讨论带入围绕拉丁美洲社会环境冲突和自然资源治理的学术辩论。

The Sustainable Development Goals that will guide the world's economic diplomacy in the coming generation have fuelled a global renaissance in hydropower in pursuit of their aim to protect the planet from degradation through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change. The United Nations have stated that modern energy services stand at the centre of global efforts to induce a paradigm shift towards green economies, poverty eradication and sustainable development) and hydropower now accounts for 65% of all renewable power generation, despite research having concluded that hydropower projects have frequently posed high social and environmental costs and longterm economic trade-offs, endangering biodiversity, indigenous livelihoods and human rights. Additionally, mega-projects involving natural resource exploitation, whether for renewable or traditional forms of energy involve a trade-off between the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, social, environmental) and energy resources are converted into political power in complex ways. As the most biodiverse country by square kilometre on the planet, Ecuador is at the forefront of both sustainable development and climate mitigation policies, and therefore provides a useful case study to explore the trade-offs of hydropower projects and the contested politics of renewable energy development within extractive states. This research will explore attempts to diversify Ecuador's energy matrix away from traditional fossil fuels, focusing specifically on the promotion of hydroelectric projects in the country. The research will include interview-based fieldwork conducted in Ecuador, allowing for the collection of empirical data from communities and stakeholders impacted by energy mega-projects, with the aim of understanding how hydroelectric projects redefine the political landscapes and social understandings of sustainable energy development at the national and local level, and what this reveals about the localisation of debates and surrounding natural resource exploitation within sustainable development and climate mitigation policies. This research aims to bring a discussion of renewable energy projects to the academic debates surrounding socio-environmental conflicts and natural resource governance in Latin America, within the context of sustainable development and climate mitigation policies and varied power dynamics at the international, national and local level.