Community Renewable Energy in the Global South: Wind Power, People Power: The

Yansa Group

Intro:

● Presentation will explore: community energy as a concept, The Yansa Group’s work and

discussion of how Yansa’s model is similar to, but also different from, the co-operative

one.

2.50pm

SLIDE 3: Things to Consider-

In groups ask if people can think about & write on post-its: (10 mins max. 3pm)

● What is a community? How can we define it?

-Socio-political group with close geographical proximity/ a local society with historical

links/ a group of people with a common culture or shared interest/ a group of people who

work in the same location/ a locale/ a group who do an activity together/ the likely

possibility of a group of people communicating with each other all in one place or time

(internet). A group of people managing a common pool resource.

● What might impact a community’s ‘development’?

-Previous developments and contact with other cultures. Natural resources that local

people may have on their land. Rate of and knowledge of technological progress.

Recognition by the governing body. Socio-political and socio-economic situation of the

people. Do they have sovereignty of their land? Climate and terrain. Colonialism.

Language. Decision making processes. Liaisons with foreign developers. Local rivalries.

● Should a co-operative have localised ownership and financing?

-Ownership- yes preferably. Financing- not necessarily- increased capital can be

raised through grants, loans, subsidies and investors.

Should a co-operative be more than just one member, one vote?

● Why is community energy in the Global South important? (Climate Justice/debt,

empowering disadvantaged communities, control & choice over fundamental energy

needs, tackling climate change.)

- -Climate Justice- Acknowledges that climate change solutions should not only be

concerned with purely environmental issues, but should aim to address social aspects

that involve communities in the Global South most affected by changing weather

patterns and climate disasters. This means creating green development solutions that

reduce inequalities and make oppressed peoples and communities proponents of

climate change solutions in ways that benefit them directly. It could also be read as the

attempt to reconcile injustices inflicted upon world native/indigenous peoples by colonial

powers and western developers. Indigenous peoples have also been geographically

marginalised to regions with the most abundant renewable resources.1 Recognising that

1 The word "colony" comes from the Latin colonia—"a place for agriculture".

social and environmental problems often intersect and are caused by the same kind of

exploitative, unsustainable business methods is fundamental to the notion of climate

justice.

- Climate Debt- the idea that since the Industrial Revolution occurred first in the North that

historical greenhouse gas emissions have benefitted those in the North and are causing

a detrimental effect on those in the Global South, (both because climate change impacts

people in the GS more and because the GS cannot develop in the same carbon

intensive way and so must be supported to develop equitable low carbon development

pathways).

- Empowering oppressed peoples - community renewable energy projects provide an

opportunity for historically marginalised groups to own and develop projects that are

socially, economically and politically beneficial to their communities whilst addressing

energy needs and climate change.

- Democratic control & choice - typically ignored or, at most, superficially consulted,

indigenous people and/or low income communities do often not have influence or control

over how their region develops. Community energy projects allow local communities to

democratically decide all aspects of their renewable energy project.

● How might community renewable energy development differ between the South

and the North? e.g. Mexico and the UK

- Expertise, infrastructure, planning, renewable energy incentives e.g. Feed In Tariffs,

Renewables Obligation Certificates.

- Mexico: poor rural farmers & indigenous population, communal land rights use, state

owned grid and oil company Pemex.

- UK: rural middle class, no indigenous, private land rights. Climate Change Act 2008,

historically has the highest per capita emissions of any country in world.

3.00pm

- SLIDE 4: Development causing conflict: Mareña Renovables video ‘Somos viento’

- SLIDE 5: Global carbon trading: market based climate solutions - internalising

environmental costs.

- Video ‘Somos viento’ explaining carbon trading

- Carbon credits and the carbon market - Carbon trading- a way for businesses to

internalises costs of GHGs- 1 tonne of CO2 equivalent = 1 carbon credit. Schemes have

been developed that encourage GN businesses and governments to invest in the GS.

- Problems- no overall regulation of one tonne equivalent of carbon dioxide gas emission.

e.g. famously in 2007, the Vatican City was given 100,000 Euros of carbon offsetting as

a donation which was supposed to be for a new forest being planted in Hungary. This

was a good publicity-stunt for Planktos/KlimaFa, when they presented the Pope with a

carbon offsetting certificate. It turned out to be a huge geoengineering project where

they would put iron filings over 2.4m acres of the Pacific Ocean to promote the growth of

phytoplankton, which, when they died, would drop to the sea floor, sequestering carbon.

The Vatican has filed legal action2. Plankton blooms might actually increase global

warming due to increasing methane and nitrous oxide emissions.

- Clean Development Mechanism (UN-accredited carbon trading): After the Kyoto

Protocol, the CDM was created alongside the Emissions Trading and the Joint

Implementation (permits Annex I (~ Global North) countries to collaboratively invest in

emissions-reduction projects in order to hit their emission reduction targets) created a

framework for the trading of GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions. The CDM is a

sustainable development scheme which allows Annex I (Global North) countries to

invest in emissions-reducing countries in Annex II (Global South) countries. It is a

project-based market approach to solving GHG emissions problems. It has three goals:

1) reduce GHG emissions, 2) to build Global South countries’ low carbon technology

capacity through a system of technology transfer, and 3) to foster ‘sustainable

development’.

- Clean Technology Fund: One of two large private funds administered by the World Bank.

It uses billions of dollars to fund low carbon technologies in middle-income countries,

such as Mexico and Turkey. “The CTF pipeline of 134 projects and programs totals $6.1

billion and expects co-financing of $51 billion from other sources. CTF $3.9 billion (74%

of CTF funding) is approved for 70 projects, leveraging $44 billion in co-financing, to

deliver 16.6 GW of renewable energy capacity of which 2.2 GW is already installed.”

- The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a fund within the framework of the UNFCCC founded

as a mechanism to redistribute money from the developed to the developing world, in

order to assist the developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter

climate change. ‘The Green Climate Fund will support projects, programmes, policies

and other activities in developing country Parties using thematic funding windows’.[1] It is

intended to be the centrepiece of efforts to raise Climate Finance of $100 billion a year

by 2020.

- Problems: no community ownership, minimal consultation, minimal accountability,

foreign profit, foreign investment, exploitative contracts, illegal land grabs, no

transparency (best through the IADB, not sufficient) often part of the Plan Puebla-

2 Adrian Parr, The Wrath of Capital, 2013, Columbia University Press, 30-31 http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0420/Carbon-offsets-How-a-Vatican-forest-failed-to-reduce-

global-warming

Panama aka. The Mesoamerican Project. Risk caused by resistance for business

developers.

3.10pm

● SLIDE 6-7: What is The Yansa Group? (video ‘Yansa general’)

- -In 2008, the community of Ixtepec contacted Yansa seeking a solution to wind

development problems through the planning of an alternative community-owned project

that would harness their regional wind resource based on their own democratic self-

governing comuna, (a politically recognised community operating the commons.)

- -Recent utility-scale wind farms initiated by foreign investors have been met with local

resistance. This has been due to exploitative contracts, inadequate community

engagement and outright disregard for the wishes and rights of the Zapotec and non-

Zapotec people in this area. In Mexico this has led to the state evicting communities

from their land on behalf of corporate wind projects in spite of legal protections that the

Mexican Constitution or the UN appear to offer3.

- The Yansa Group also works internationally with indigenous communities, presently only

in the Global South to develop democratic community wind farms. These communities

often do not have the financial, legal and technical resources they need to undertake

these projects so Yansa facilitates and supports these capacities.

3.15pm

● SLIDE 8-10: The Yansa Group’s Structure

-Yansa Community Interest Company (Limited by Guarantee) - registered in the London,

UK: The social development of the communities where its projects take place. The

promotion of community renewable energy in other communities.

-Yansa, Inc. a.k.a. The Yansa Foundation - registered in New York, USA

-Yansa Renovables S. de R.L. de C.V. – Limited Liability Company registered in Mexico City, Mexico (subsidiary of the project CIC in order to operate in Mexico)

-Each project has a further CIC for the specific community.

- Revenue will be generated by the national grid, CFE (Comision Federal

Electricidad), purchasing the electricity in an arrangement similar to a FiT (Feed-in

Tariff) or a ROC (Renewables Obligation Certificate).

3 World Development Movement, ‘Power to the People? How World Bank financed wind farms failed

communities in Mexico’, November 2011

- Security Trust: holds assets e.g. wind turbines and collects the revenue to distribute to

lenders before profit goes towards a Community Development Trust, Yansa & Yansa’s

Mutual Guarantee Instrument.

- •Mutual Guarantee Instrument: collateralises the debt and stabilises cash flow across

different projects - aim is to keep project under the control of a structure that is equally

accountable to communities and to investors or financiers, thus reducing the

financial risk and financing cost of projects over time. Protects the project’s assets from

takeover by creditors in case of unexpected cash flow problems.

- 50% of the revenue generated by the agreement will then be reinvested back into the

community via a Community Development Trust mechanism and the other 50% will go

towards three entities: the Yansa Foundation for community training, enabling the

community to entirely run the enterprise in the long-term; the Yansa CIC is concerned

with the technical aspects and planning of the project. The CIC will also help develop

other wind projects elsewhere.

3.20pm

SLIDE 11: Co-operative models in the UK & The Yansa Group’s model

How is it similar? How is it different?

The Yansa Group’s projects fit with Co-operative Values: self-help, self-responsibility,

democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. However, Yansa would not consider its projects to

be co-operatives.

In accordance with the UK’s regulatory Financial Conduct Authority’s rules, co-ops in the UK

may have members who participate remotely through buying, selling, supplying or using the

services of the co-op whilst not actually engaging in the decision-making process.4 Therefore

co-ops in the UK can sometimes end up being investment vehicles without the ‘community

involvement’ that co-operative principles encourage. Originally in Denmark there was a rule

which stated that most of the ownership of the renewable energy co-op should be within a

specific geographic area.

From Yansa Group’s Impact Report. - “In the case of Mexico, the consensus to include

vulnerable sectors was reached with a strong basis. Our intervention was based on two ideas:

first, that even if the land belongs to a specific part of the community, the wind “belongs”

to everyone in the community. Second, that Yansa’s social objective is to promote wind

projects that benefit and involve the complete community, in a differentiated but inclusive

manner. This was understood and agreed by all community members, including those who hold

the power with regards to the land. A Women’s Forum and a Youth Forum were convened as

4http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/15/green-energy-co-ops-blocked-by-government-

regulator

autonomous organizational spaces.” The community here is defined as the inhabitants of

Ixtepec (30,000).

Yansa’s CIC model allows full community ownership and equity whilst simultaneously making

the company available for investment to impact investors through both the CIC and Yansa's

investment mechanism. Yansa would not call it's mechanism a co-operative one, it is aiming to

create community ownership by people locally affected by the project on land that is

communally owned.

Ultimately the reason why a co-operative model or share scheme may not work in poor

communities is because often the financial benefits of being a member of these entities

are not distributed to the entire community because payments will be restricted to those

with the means to invest in the project in the first place. An example of this is the

Energy4All initiative. Allowing a democratic community development trust to reinvest in

the local area is helpful as it creates, arguably, a more just solution.

SLIDE 12: To conclude:

Co-operative models can cause an unjust outcome in very geographically specific scenarios,

such as with wind farms. If the profit (dividend) is only returned back to the investors, that is

basically only an investment vehicle without the community values. Whilst hopefully local people

will invest in co-operatives, poor people are likely to be left out. In poor areas in the Global

South - for example rural, renewable energy rich areas – the locals are unlikely to be able to

invest. With the idea that it is the local community’s wind, they should benefit from it. Impact

investment allows for financial returns whilst developing a revenue stream for the whole

community, not just land owners or shareholders.5

END

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Comparing models of ownership:

1. Geographically concentrated ownership and control; global financing - Necessary for

trust in Global South

2. Geographically dispersed ownership and control; global financing - Political difficulty and

risk for investment - see World Development Movement, 2011

3. Geographically concentrated ownership and control; local financing - difficult in Global

South

The Regulator in the UK: Energy 4 All and other UK ‘renewable energy co-operatives’ - ‘At the

heart of the issue is the question of whether energy co-operative members participate actively

5 http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefingsAndFactsheets/S4/SB_12-71.pdf

enough in the co-op. To register a co-op, Financial Conduct Authority rules require a mutual to

show participation which it lists as “buying from or selling to the society”, “using the services or

amenities provided by it” and/or “supplying services to carry out its business”.

But unlike a co-op shop, which can sell direct to its members, energy co-ops are too small to

apply for licenses that would mean they could sell electricity from a wind turbine directly to

members – instead, they usually sell to the national grid via a broker, and divide the profits

between members.

An FCA spokeswoman did not confirm whether there had been a shift in the authority’s stance

towards energy co-ops, but said: “One of the conditions for registration is that the applicant must

be a bona fide co-operative society where members participate in its business. When applicants

cannot demonstrate this to the FCA, in accordance with the [Co-operative and Community

Benefit Societies] act, we cannot register them.”’

http://www.thenews.coop/88879/news/energy/regulator-blocks-registration-of-new-energy-co-

operatives/

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/power-to-transform/ - renewable energy co-operatives

http://www.mstbrazil.org/whatismst Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (Landless

Workers’ Movement, Brazil) train people to set up wind farms.

http://www.cooperativedifference.coop/assets/files/National/RE_Co-

op_Review_RegulatoryScan_Jan2012.pdf - Renewable Energy Co-op Review: Scan of Models

& Regulatory Issues → looks at Canada and Europe exclusively.

http://www.uk.coop/sites/storage/public/downloads/renewableenergy_0_0.pdf - A guide to UK

Renewable Energy Co-ops by Co-ops UK.

‘The voluntary carbon offset market obscures the structures of exploitation and subordination

endemic to the circuitry of capital as it flows from the back pocket of Rabobank to Suzlon

Energy Ltd. but not to the Adivasi farmers in India whose land was used without their permission

for carbon offsets. The same structures can be seen as capital flows from the individuals and

businesses buying offsets from Green Seat to balance out their air travel emissions to FACE

which owns the carbon sequestration rights to the 25,000 hectare of trees in the Mount Elgon

National forest in Uganda that provides Green Seat with carbon offsets to sell as well as to the

World Bank and the European Commission but not to the Benet people who not only lost their

livelihoods and land but were also the victims of arson, rape, torture and beatings as they were

forced from their forest homes at the hands of UWA staff, police and soldiers. From this

standpoint the voluntary carbon offset market facilitates the expansion of power and extends the

authority of the already influential at the expense of the vulnerable...Turning carbon into a

commodity is not a solution.’6

6 Adrian Parr, The Wrath of Capital, 2013, Columbia University Press