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Abstract
Abstract Under the global rhetoric of 'the green economy' Renewable Energy Resources (RES) projects have proliferated across the world. This article examines the growth of photovoltaic projects in post-crisis Greece, grounded in a green energy discourse. The aim is to provide insights into how green economies are built and what new appropriations they (might) entail. It is based on a Foucauldian oriented discourse analysis, in depth semi-structured interviews and review of a variety of other sources. The article argues that justificatory discourses for green growth implicated in 'green grabbing' involve the complex interplay of neoliberal and disciplinary 'environmentalities.' These seek to construct 'green economy' entrepreneurs and compliant subjects. A relatively undocumented and understudied aspect of green grabs is the appropriation of public and private financial resources for photovoltaic projects, with significant negative impacts on livelihoods. In Greece, this has resulted in the accumulation of capital by a few large RES companies, as well as significant impacts on the livelihoods of domestic and small business electricity consumers and small/medium photovoltaic investors through debt. Key words: Greece, green economy, photovoltaics, green grabbing, environmentality, Foucault, green energy
Highlights
With the acknowledgment of the global economic crisis in 2008, a new paradigm of sustainable development referred to as 'green growth' emerged, intensifying a transition to a 'green economy.' Green growth refers to "economic growth and development, while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well‐being relies" (OECD 2011:9)
The analysis was based on Foucault's archaeological and genealogical enquiry into discourse, while it drew on Foucault's concepts of 'biopower' and 'neoliberal and disciplinary governmentality', as developed by the end of his 1978-1979 lectures on The birth of biopolitics at the Collège de France (Foucault 2008[19781979])
What happened in Greece is not an isolated case
Summary
With the acknowledgment of the global economic crisis in 2008, a new paradigm of sustainable development referred to as 'green growth' emerged, intensifying a transition to a 'green economy.' Green growth refers to "economic growth and development, while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well‐being relies" (OECD 2011:9). Examples include: UNEP's Green economy initiative in 2008 (UNEP 2013), the OECD's Green growth: overcoming the crisis and beyond (2009), Europe's 2020 growth strategy (EC 2010) and the Rio+20 outcome document, The future we want (UNCSD 2012) All of these supported a conviction that building green economic sectors, through the economic valuation and inclusion of biophysical services, resources and products in the market, can successfully respond to the economic, financial and environmental crises of our times. Hadjimihalis (2014) discusses the appropriation of subsidies by wind park investors and the rents received by RES investors in Greece, in the context of its debt crisis In this case, public financial resources have been appropriated through indirect state subsidization (via feed-in tariffs) and a market 'bubble', and private money through green levies and other means, based on green and economic recovery credentials.
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