Renewable energy frenzy triggers land grabbing in ‘Wonderful Puglia’

Sunny in the summer and windy in spring and autumn, “Puglia, an authentic wonder”, echoes the advertisement at Bari Airport, praising the region for its rich history, cultural heritage, and stunning landscapes. Situated in the south of Italy, at the centre of the Mediterranean, the region is often portrayed in tourist narratives as a preferred holiday destination. Away from the attention of travel magazines, Puglia struggles with depopulation, arid landscapes and abandoned land. Here, the intersection of marginality and speculation presents challenges that affect the lives of local communities, especially when this territory is of interest to fossil fuel companies seeking to improve their environmental credentials by investing in renewable energy plants and facilities.

Renewable energy investments in the Mediterranean

In the Mediterranean, the transition to renewable energy to combat climate change has led to a significant trend: the acquisition of land. While this move towards cleaner energy is positive, it raises concerns about rural energy justice and speculation. Large corporations are obtaining vast rural areas for solar and wind energy installations, using agricultural land that communities rely on for their livelihoods. Despite the renewable energy projects addressing the climate crisis, “they also capitalise on lower-cost lands and local communities’ marginality”. It reinforces the territorial divide in the Mediterranean, exacerbating imbalances with northern Europe.

The regions affected by the green land grabbing in the Mediterranean are marginalised areas, more prone to poverty and social exclusion. They “have experienced decades of depopulation and ageing, coupled with a historical trend of de-infrastructure and de-industrialisation,” says Samadhi Lipari, a doctoral researcher at the School of Geography at the University of Leeds (UK). This situation highlights a persistent and unbridgeable divide between the North and the Mediterranean.

“Under similar conditions, areas less affected by significant economic activity may seem technically suitable for renewable energy development,” says sociologist Ivano Scotti. However, within these areas, the neoliberal erosion of the climate planning system influences practices of rural injustice, where marginality plays a relevant role, allowing the speed of these unbalanced development processes. “Socio-ecological marginality is made functional for the extraction of value through green energy production,” Lipari continues.

Energy Transition Plans for the EU

In July 2021, the European Commission adopted a set of proposals to align the European Union’s climate, energy, transport, and taxation policies in order to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. This initiative aims to make the EU the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. However, the transformation of the energy regime falls short of breaking out from the system of capital accumulation, which is facilitated by a lack of land and climate planning at the local level, often at the expense of local needs.

With a €1 billion budget, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) in Italy aims to promote the electrification of local areas and infrastructure. At the European level, REPowerEU is investing €210 billion to advance the ecological transition. More than 100 projects are in the approval phase in Puglia, a region with the largest surface area of installations, accounting for approximately 34% of the total national installations, and poised for further growth with REPowerEU and PNRR investments. Most of the planning for these plants is in the hands of big private companies with an interest in fossil fuel profits.

This does not come without a cost. “The energy transition risks reproducing, if not exacerbating, the condition of marginality in these areas, due to various factors related to local institutional actors and the economic-productive fabric. Local institutions may not be able to manage settlement processes, both because of the regulatory impossibility of influencing the process and because of the lack of relational skills,” Scotti continues.

Who pays the cost of the energy transition?

In the context of the energy transition and the war in Ukraine, the need to diversify European resources away from Russian gas and move towards sustainable solutions has triggered a new investment boom. Numerous multinationals and corporations are racing to acquire land and water areas to build wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. This pattern is typical of a region often exposed to external interests, as Scotti says: “Areas less affected by more relevant economic flows, may seem technically suitable for the development of renewables.” 

In Puglia, the push for photovoltaics is reshaping the local territory and economy, which has traditionally relied on agriculture and tourism. Projects by Eni, Amazon, and Shell are just the latest examples of the growing presence of multinational companies, creating a significant power imbalance in the local communities where they choose to operate. While environmental impact assessment procedures continue to list projects awaiting approval, this imbalance extends to foreign companies, especially from northern Italy and northern Europe.

The drive for the acquisition of green land was boosted by Legislative Decree 387/2003, introduced during the Berlusconi government. It stated that “the construction of renewable energy plants […] is of public utility and cannot be postponed.” This regulation opened the door to ex lege expropriation of land identified for the construction of renewable energy plants. This recognised right to acquire land facilitated private investment. At the same time, the limited bargaining power of small landowners eliminated the potential for local land planning.

“The land of my farm is being expropriated without notice,” says Francesco Gentile, whose farm in Acquaviva delle Fonti is to be the site of photovoltaic installations. “They could have taken grassland, abandoned areas, old quarries; there are areas with old abandoned quarries.”

The lack of tools and negotiating skills clashed with the interests of multinationals and corporations, which were racing to acquire land and water for the construction of wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. In some cases, energy production is being privatised for the benefit of companies based in northern Italy, using the Power Purchase Agreement tool, leaving the communities without any benefit.

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