By Arnold Roquerre
Introduction
Green colonialism—sometimes called environmental imperialism—describes how environmental and renewable-energy initiatives perpetuate energy poverty, colonial-style relationships of power, dependency, and inequality. While its most obvious victims are developing regions that provide land, minerals, and labor for the global green transition, the phenomenon also affects the cities.
In both developed and underdeveloped urban settings, the same logic applies: sustainability projects serve global capital, privileged elites, and fanatical idealogs more than local welfare. In poorer cities, green colonialism displaces the vulnerable; in wealthier cities, it gentrifies, excludes, and erodes affordability. The result is a global urban system where sustainability is achieved for some, not with all.
1. Green Colonialism
The University of Copenhagen defines green colonialism as “a contemporary version of imperial practicesn wherein developed states, corporations, and internationalQq bodies enforce environmental policies on developing countries or pursue resource projects under the idea that such activities are necessary to protect the environment or for the green transition of society.” (University of Copenhagen, 2024)
According to the Heinrich Böll Foundation (2024), this modern colonialism “reproduces global and domestic inequalities by transferring the environmental burdens of the rich onto the poor.” In the urban context, this extends beyond cross-border exploitation—it manifests within cities themselves, dividing populations by class, race, and geography under the banner of “green growth.”
2. Economic Distortion and Dependency
In cities such as Lagos, Nairobi, and Dhaka, global climate-finance programs and “green city” partnerships dictate development priorities. The OECD (2023) found that donor-driven projects often “create maintenance liabilities rather than productive multipliers.”
These cities must comply with Western-defined carbon metrics to access funds which guarantees energy poverty, leaving less room for addressing poverty, housing, and public health. They import renewable technologies, pay foreign firms for maintenance, and export raw materials—creating a cycle of green dependency (Beyond Development Network, 2023).
3. The Hidden Costs of Green Energy
a. Extraction and Externalization
Solar panels, electric vehicles, and wind turbines require vast quantities of lithium, cobalt, and nickel, mined mainly in Africa and South America. The Guardian (2023) reports that Indigenous leaders call this “green colonialism” because it destroys ecosystems for the sake of Western decarbonization.
b. Urban Energy Inequality
In underdeveloped cities, renewable energy benefits elites while poor households remain energy-insecure. In developed cities, carbon taxes and electric-vehicle mandates often raise living costs for low-income residents (World Bank, 2023).
c. Toxic Afterlife
E-waste from expired solar panels and batteries is exported to cities like Accra and Lagos for unsafe recycling (Earth.org, 2023). The so-called circular economy becomes a one-way transfer of pollution from North to South.
4. Developed Cities: Internal Contradictions of Green Colonialism
Green colonialism also harms developed cities by transforming sustainability into an elitist urban ideology that deepens inequality and displaces the working class.
a. Green Gentrification and Housing Inequality
Projects like New York’s High Line, London’s Thames Eco-Corridor, and Paris’s greening programs raise rents and displace long-term residents. Conservation Letters (2022) shows that colonial and racial legacies still shape green-space distribution in Western cities.
Los Angeles’s “Sustainable City pLAn” improved air quality but priced out thousands of families. Similar patterns appear in Boston, Portland, and Berlin, where environmental investment boosts real-estate speculation rather than inclusion.
b. The Energy Transition’s Class Divide
Wealthy households can afford solar roofs and EVs; working-class families face higher energy bills. Policies such as the EU’s Fit for 55 and U.S. carbon-pricing schemes raise fuel and heating costs without sufficient subsidies. The French Gilets Jaunes protests exemplified backlash against inequitable carbon taxation (Heinrich Böll Foundation, 2024).
c. Deindustrialization and Job Displacement
Green transitions in Europe and the U.S. have closed many fossil-based industries without providing comparable employment. Workers in Pittsburgh, Essen, and Manchester face unemployment or precarious “green jobs.” The World Bank Urban Sustainability Report (2023) warns that “a decarbonized economy without just-transition planning risks reinforcing the urban class divide.”
d. Privatization of the Green City
Public-private partnerships dominate green infrastructure. These attract investment but often privatize public goods—parks, transport, and utilities—reducing civic control and accountability.
5. Underdeveloped Cities: Green Growth without Justice
In underdeveloped cities, green colonialism often leads to eviction and exclusion.
• In Nairobi, foreign-financed “eco-smart” projects displaced informal settlements.
• In Manila, flood-control efforts removed over 100,000 poor households (UN-Habitat, 2023).
• In Lagos, waterfront “eco-redevelopment” turned community land into private luxury zones.
UN-Habitat (2023) concludes that “the pressure to green without capacity or equity exacerbates urban poverty rather than alleviating it.”
6. Shared Consequences: How Green Colonialism Links All Cities
Despite their differences, developed and underdeveloped cities share one global system of green capitalism.
Green-tech production contributes to economic growth through advances in design and manufacturing, yet it remains dependent on the extraction of minerals and the use of labor and land resources. Green finance, while promoting sustainable investment, centralizes rule-setting and profit collection, often imposing rigid metrics that determine eligibility for aid. Urban redevelopment, under the guise of modernization, has accelerated gentrification and increased living costs, displacing informal and low-income communities. Additionally, waste and pollution are frequently externalized through export, yet their environmental consequences are ultimately reimported and absorbed locally. The broader energy transition—particularly under frameworks such as the Oslo price mechanism—has driven energy costs sharply upward, exposing a deeper structural issue: the renewable energy produced under these systems often costs more than the fossil fuels it was meant to replace. As a result, social inequality is reinforced, as lower-income groups bear the burden of higher prices and persistent economic exclusion despite the rhetoric of inclusive development.
This interdependence shows that green colonialism is a global urban ecosystem—environmental progress for some depends on hidden costs for others.
7. Toward a Decolonized and Just Urban Transition
To overcome green colonialism, both Northern and Southern cities must:
– Embed social justice into sustainability targets.
– Guarantee equitable access to energy, housing, and transport.
– Support local production and maintenance of green technology.
– Protect municipal sovereignty from donor conditionality.
– Foster reciprocal partnerships between cities across regions.
As Urban Studies (2024) observes, “a decolonized green city measures success not by carbon neutrality but by the dignity and inclusion of its residents.”
Conclusion
Green colonialism is not only a North–South problem; it is a shared urban condition.
– Underdeveloped cities supply resources and labor.
– Developed cities suffer gentrification, inequality, and privatization.
Both are trapped in a model of sustainability that values metrics over people. A true green transition must become a social contract—grounded in justice, participation, and accountability. Only then can cities, rich and poor alike, achieve a sustainable future that is not colonial but collective.
References
Beyond Development Network (2023). The Geopolitics of Green Colonialism. https://beyonddevelopment.net/the-geopolitics-of-green-colonialism/
Conservation Letters (2022). Urban Green Space and Colonial Legacies. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12889
Earth.org (2023). Green Colonialism and Environmental Injustice. https://earth.org/green-colonialism/
Heinrich Böll Foundation (2024). Green Colonialism. https://th.boell.org/en/2024/11/11/-green-colonialism
OECD (2023). Sustainable Urban Development in Emerging Economies: Lessons from Donor Programs. OECD Publishing.
Pollution Sustainability Directory (2023). Green Colonialism Critique. https://pollution.sustainability-directory.com/term/green-colonialism-critique/
The Guardian (2023). UN Indigenous Peoples Forum Warns of ‘Green Colonialism’ in Climate Strategies. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/23/un-indigenous-peoples-forum-climate-strategy-warning
UN-Habitat (2023). Urban Justice Report: Equity in Sustainable Cities. https://unhabitat.org
University of Copenhagen (2024). Environmental Humanities Glossary: Green Colonialism. https://artsandculturalstudies.ku.dk/research/art-and-earth/environmental-humanities-glossary/green-colonialism/
Urban Studies (2024). Post-Colonial Urbanism and the Metrics of Green Justice. SAGE Publications.
World Bank (2023). Urban Sustainability Report 2023: Resilience and Justice in Transition. Washington DC: World Bank.