Abstract
Renewable energy is critical for urban design, architecture, and infrastructure development today. It can help restructure living spaces in a more self-sustaining and environmentally friendly way, a necessity given impending climate doom and the scarcity of resources affecting more and more vulnerable communities around the globe. Yet while renewable energy is popular topic in discussions of sustainability and economic development, there are important omissions in the current discussion. This paper critically reflects on how renewable energy is currently used and understood. While having a lot of positive potential, renewable energy has strong ties to our capitalist system, which is focused solely on economic growth with no regard to its negative effects on the environment and at-risk communities. In sustainable development discourse, renewable energy is widely seen as both good for the environment as well as socially and democratically empowering to the people. This paper discusses how renewable energy’s ties to capitalism hinders some of the positive potential of it and aims to present a more complete picture of how renewable energy is used and what that means for our society.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Renewable Energy, Economy, Environment, At-risk communities
