Social and environmental costs and opportunities associated with renewable energy policy implementation: Negotiation of equitable water allocation and its implications for sustainable livelihoods

Motivated by both climate change and energy security objectives, the European Union has introduced renewable energy (RE) strategies that establish the Union as one of the main centres of consumption of RE produced outside its boundaries.

This has had led to a rapid increase in the number of multi-national companies starting RE production in the South, particularly biofuels, in anticipation of exporting their products to major consumer regions through global markets. Such activities have implications not only for how land is used in developing countries, but also on water  both the quantity available to different users and the quality.

This project undertakes an an assessment of the impacts on livelihoods arising from the transformation to biofuels production in Indonesia and Tanzania, using water resource use as an analytical proxy.