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Online seminar by Dr. Benjamin Schuetze on 'Renewable Energies, Renewed Authoritarianisms? The Political Economy of Solar Energy in the MENA'

Protests in Tunis, March 2022. © Hasan Mrad/shutterstock
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Dr. Benjamin Schuetze

Countries throughout the MENA are pursuing ambitious targets for a transition from fossil fuels to renewables. While the latter’s distributed nature offers a possibility for more democratic, inclusive and independent (energy) politics, transregionally connected authoritarian elites attempt to transform it into concentrated forms of political and economic power. Focusing on efforts at transregional electricity grid integration between the EU and the MENA, and on the rapid expansion, but then sudden halt of renewable energy projects in Jordan, this IASS-facilitated online presentation explores how efforts at energy transition reshape established authoritarian practices.

link to online recording