Empowering the pluriverse: Possibilities and challenges for decolonial energy transitions in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico

Abstract

Through a situated analysis of the “Energía para yeknemilis project,” which is executed by the Union of Cooperatives Tosepan Titataniske in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico, we argue that energy transitions can articulate decolonial praxis. Based on eight months of collaborative participatory action research involving a European researcher and the project’s team of investigadores comunitaries sentipensantes, we make two contributions to the literature concerned with energy transitions and decolonial praxis. We provide empirical evidence to substantiate decolonial critiques of environmental, climate, and energy justice, and we propose that the project challenges the coloniality present in most of the current energy transition discourses and “green” transition projects. To do so, we discuss how the project contributes to constructing an Indigenous-led and rural energy regime oriented towards achieving energy sovereignty and realizing yeknemilis / xatlaan latamaat, which are local articulations of Buen Vivir. We also analyze some of the possibilities and limits to decolonial transformations that the project illustrates to strengthen the project and provide reflections for others struggling towards energy regimes that sustain life and power Indigenous self-determination.