DIGITAL ENERGY COLONIALISM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61164/ty3wdr34Keywords:
Digital energy colonialismo; Green colonialismo; Energy transition; Neo-extractivism; Climate justice.Abstract
This article analyzes the phenomenon of digital energy colonialism as a contemporary expression of the coloniality of power within the context of the global energy transition. It argues that, under the discourse of sustainability, technological innovation, and decarbonization, historical dynamics of exploitation, territorial dispossession, and economic subordination are reproduced, now mediated by digital infrastructures, technological platforms, and regimes of algorithmic governance. The study draws on decolonial theory and critical perspectives on energy colonialism and green colonialism to demonstrate how the Global South continues to be positioned as a supplier of strategic natural resources, sacrifice territories, and material bases for the expansion of “green” and digital technologies, while economic, informational, and decision-making benefits remain concentrated in the Global North and among transnational elites. It is argued that the digitalization of the energy transition intensifies neo-extractivism by incorporating data extraction, technological control, and the financialization of nature as new vectors of domination. The article concludes that digital energy colonialism deepens socio-environmental inequalities, undermines the self-determination of peoples and traditional communities, and challenges hegemonic paradigms of climate justice, calling for the construction of energy and technological alternatives grounded in socio-environmental justice, territorial sovereignty, and epistemological plurality.
Downloads
References
AGAMBEN, Giorgio. Estado de exceção. São Paulo: Boitempo, 2004.
AGUILLAR, Cláudia Maria Bernava; CABREIRA, Maria Alda Barbosa. O novo colonialismo energético e as antigas relações de trabalho: uma análise contemporânea da indústria brasileira da cana-de-açúcar sob a óptica caiopradiana. Ciência Geográfica, Bauru, v. 15, n. 1, p. 39–44, 2011.
ACSELRAD, Henri. Justiça ambiental e construção social do risco. Revista Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente, 2019. Disponível em < https://revistas.ufpr.br/made/article/view/22116 > Acesso e, 22 Dez. 2025.
COMISSÃO PASTORAL DA TERRA (CPT). Conflitos no Campo Brasil 2023. Goiânia: CPT Nacional, 2024.
COMISSÃO PASTORAL DA TERRA (CPT). Colonialismo energético, território de sacrifício: a real face da transição energética no Vale do Jequitinhonha. Belo Horizonte, 2024.
COULDRY, Nick; MEJÍAS, Ulises A. The Costs of Connection: How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503609754
ESCOBAR, Arturo. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
ESCOBAR, Arturo. Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822371816
GUDYNAS, Eduardo. Extractivismos: Ecología, economía y política de un modo de entender el desarrollo y la naturaleza. Cochabamba: CEDIB, 2015.
HAMOUCHENE, Hamza. O colonialismo verde. Decolonial Centre, 2024. Disponível em: https://decolonialcentre.org. Acesso em: 2025.
HICKEL, Jason. Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. Londres: Windmill Books, 2021.
JASANOFF, Sheila. The Ethics of Invention: Technology and the Human Future. Nova York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.
JØRGENSEN, Rikke Frank. Human Rights in the age of platforms. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11304.001.0001
KALLIS, Giorgos. Degrowth. Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing, 2018.
KLEIN, Naomi. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014.
LOHMANN, Larry. Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Climate Change, Privatisation and Power. Uppsala: Dag Hammarskjöld Centre, 2006.
MBEMBE, Achille. Necropolítica. São Paulo: N-1 Edições, 2018.
MOROZOV, Evgeny. Big Tech: A Ascensão dos Dados e a Morte da Política. São Paulo: Ubu Editora, 2018.
OXFAM. Transição injusta: resgatando o futuro energético do colonialismo climático. Relatório, 2025.
OSTERHAMMEL, Jürgen. Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997.
PEREIRA, Yasmin de Souza; MARQUES, Clarissa; GUIMARÃES, Anne Gabriele Alves. Colonialismo energético e racismo ambiental: desafios para uma justiça climática em territórios tradicionais frente a empreendimentos eólicos. Contribuciones a las Ciencias Sociales, São José dos Pinhais, v. 18, n. 8, p. 1–17, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55905/revconv.18n.8-019
PORTO-GONÇALVES, Carlos Walter. A Globalização da Natureza e a Natureza da Globalização. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 2006.
PRADO JÚNIOR, Caio. Formação do Brasil contemporâneo. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 2000.
QUIJANO, Aníbal. Colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y América Latina. In: LANDER, Edgardo (org.). La colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2000.
SANTOS, Boaventura de Sousa. O Fim do Império Cognitivo: A Afirmação das Epistemologias do Sul. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica, 2019.
SANTOS, Elaine. Reflexões sobre o colonialismo energético. Jornal da USP, São Paulo, 20 mar. 2023. Disponível em: https://jornal.usp.br. Acesso em: 2025.
SANTOS, Milton. Por uma Outra Globalização: do Pensamento Único à Consciência Universal. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2022.
SVAMPA, Maristella. El Antropoceno como diagnóstico y paradigma. Lecturas globales desde el Sur. 2019. Disponível em < https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2653161> Acesso em 12 Dez. 2025.
ZUBOFF, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York: PublicAffairs, 2019.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Alcian Pereira de Souza, Danielle Costa de Souza Simas, Jeibson dos Santos Justiniano, Albefredo Melo de Souza Junior, Neuton Alves de Lima, Vania Maria do Perpétuo Socorro Marques Marinho, Luis Fabian Pereira Barbosa, Katy Any Lopes da Silva
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits the sharing of the work with proper acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal;
Authors are authorized to enter into separate, additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g., posting in an institutional repository or publishing it as a book chapter), provided that authorship and initial publication in this journal are properly acknowledged, and that the work is adapted to the template of the respective repository;
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post and distribute their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their personal websites) at any point before or during the editorial process, as this may lead to productive exchanges and increase the impact and citation of the published work (see The Effect of Open Access);
Authors are responsible for correctly providing their personal information, including name, keywords, abstracts, and other relevant data, thereby defining how they wish to be cited. The journal’s editorial board is not responsible for any errors or inconsistencies in these records.
PRIVACY POLICY
The names and email addresses provided to this journal will be used exclusively for the purposes of this publication and will not be made available for any other purpose or to third parties.
Note: All content of the work is the sole responsibility of the author and the advisor.
