Browsing by Autor "Carlos Larrea"

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A social multi-criteria evaluation approach to assess extractive and non-extractive scenarios in Ecuador: Intag case study
(2016) Mariana Walter; Sara Latorre Tomás; Giuseppe Munda; Carlos Larrea
Capítulo 18: Globalización, extractivismo y exclusión social: Manifestaciones específicas de cada país
(2022) Carlos Larrea; María R Murmis; Stefan Peters; Andrés Escobar; Daniel M. Larrea‐Alcázar; Luz Marina Mantilla; Eduardo Pichilingue; Emiliano Terán-Mantovani; Michiel van den Bergh
This chapter presents country-specific descriptions of human intervention in the Amazon, including the expansion of agricultural and extractive activities. The analysis contains two comprehensive national cases (Colombia and Ecuador) and three short studies focused on public policies (Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela). The Brazilian experience reducing deforestation is presented in Chapter 17.
Concentration of Assets and Poverty Reduction in Post-neoliberal Ecuador
(2017) Carlos Larrea; Natalia Greene
Ecuador's Yasuni-ITT Initiative: Avoiding emissions by keeping petroleum underground
(2009) Carlos Larrea; Lavinia Warnars
Environmental impacts of oil extraction in blocks 16 and 67 of the Yasuní Reserve in the Amazonian Forest: Combined qualitative and Life-Cycle Assessment
(2024) Cinta Eugenio; Jacid Montoya-Torres; Ortzi Akizu‐Gardoki; Leire Urkidi Azkarraga; Unai Villalba‐Eguiluz; Carlos Larrea; Sylvia Pappuccio; Angélica Calle-Calderón; Dania Quirola
This research analyses 24 years of oil extraction in blocks 16 and 67 of the Yasuní National Park (YNP) in the Amazonian Forest of Ecuador, one of the most biodiverse spaces in the world and with the current presence of ancient indigenous communities. As a novel contribution, we have carried out a Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) that quantifies the footprints associated with the extraction, transportation, refining, distribution and final uses of the oil in four different scenarios (oil for asphalt use, electricity, marine fuel and passenger car transport). This study also sheds light on the energy return at the point of use of different oil-derivatives, and complements this with a qualitative analysis of the social, cultural and environmental implications for the Waorani communities. We conclude that the environmental burdens of the extraction process in blocks 16 and 67 in 2015 were greater than those of countries such as the United States, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, based on the analysis of 11 impact categories. The blocks' operation is the most unfavourable for the categories of Terrestrial Acidification Potential (TAP), Global Warming Potential (GWP), Terrestrial Ecotoxicity Potential (TEP) and Ecosystem Quality Loss Potential (EQL), with increments of 804.15 %, 105.36 %, 506.29 % and 210.73 %, respectively, in relation to the average of the rest of the extraction systems analysed. Specifically, the present case study shows 75.18 % higher impacts in the blocks addressed, when compared to the Ecuadorian average. During the period 1999-2022, the carbon emissions associated with the oil extraction in these blocks have increased by 139.01%. It has been detected a neo-colonial economic behaviour: while the Ecuadorian state received 21% of the sales, the Spanish government and the oil companies received, on average, 38% and 41% of the per-litre average fuel price, respectively. Thus, 79% of the income stayed in the Global North. We conclude that, on average, 19.64 % of the impacts associated with crude oil production and consumption occur in the Amazonian region of the YNP, depending on the fuel used and the consumption mechanism. For the Global Warming Potential (GWP) impact category, the extraction process carries, on average, 34.51 % of the weight in all of the life-cycle impacts, depending on the consumption scenario. It was also estimated that to be able to use 0.33 kWh of electricity from fuel combustion, 0.47 kWh of energy for goods transport and 0.20 kWh for passenger transport, an investment of 1 kWh is required, with an average extended EROI of 1:3.33. According to the qualitative analysis performed, it has been concluded that the main local impacts are related to the obstacles in environmental monitoring and information, the economic dependence of the communities on the oil extraction company, and cultural transformations; impacts that are not easily quantifiable or detectable using other methodologies. The combination of the qualitative analysis and LCA showed that the neo-colonial economic distribution did not compensate the social and environmental impacts of the oil extraction occurred in the YNP.
Environmental justice and the SDGs: from synergies to gaps and contradictions
(2020) Mary Menton; Carlos Larrea; Sara Latorre; Joan Martínez Alier; Mika Peck; Leah Temper; Mariana Walter
Abstract Through their synergies, trade-offs, and contradictions, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have the potential to lead to environmental justices and injustices. Yet, environmental justice (EJ), and social justice more broadly, are not currently embedded within the language and spirit of the SDGs. We part from the premise that “many ‘environmental’ problems are, by their very nature, problems of justice” (Lele, Wiley Interdiscip Rev Water 4:e1224, 2017). We review progress in EJ frameworks in recent years, arguing for the need to move beyond a focus on the four principles of mainstream EJ (distribution, procedure, recognition, and capabilities) towards a more intersectional decolonial approach to environmental justice that recognises the indispensability of both humans and non-humans. EJ frameworks, and the SDGs should recognise power dynamics, complex interactions among injustices, and listens to the different ‘senses of justice’ and desires of theorists, activists, and other stakeholder from the Global South. We analyze how EJ frameworks are, or fail to be, incorporated in the SDGs with a focus on the food–water–health nexus (SDG2, 3, 6); climate-energy (SDG7, 13), conservation (SDG14, 15); and poverty and inequality (SDG1, 10). We call attention to the ‘elephant in the room’—the failure to go beyond GDP but instead include economic growth as a goal (SDG8). We argue that sustainable degrowth and intersectional decolonial environmental justices would create better conditions for the transformative changes needed to reach the broader aim of the SDGs: to leave no one behind.
Leaving oil underground in Ecuador: The Yasuní-ITT initiative from a multi-criteria perspective
(2014) María Cristina Vallejo; Rafael Burbano; Fander Falconí; Carlos Larrea
Postface
(2018) Carlos Larrea
Postfacio
(2018) Carlos Larrea
Where to leave fossil fuels underground? A multi-criteria analysis to identify unburnable carbon areas in the Ecuadorian Amazon region
(2022) Daniele Codato; Salvatore Eugenio Pappalardo; Francesco Facchinelli; Maria R Murmis; Carlos Larrea; Massimo De Marchi
Abstract Despite the ongoing impacts of climate change around the world, fossil fuels continue to drive the global economy. The socio-environmental impacts of oil development at the local level are widely recognized, especially in high biocultural diversity areas, highlighting the need to develop and implement effective policies that protect both biodiversity and human rights. In consideration of the estimated remaining carbon budget to limit global warming at 1.5 °C, as well as Ecuador’s past attempts at limiting carbon extraction through the Yasuni-ITT Initiative, we adopt a new framework to identify ‘unburnable carbon areas’ with the goal of eventually phasing out fossil fuels. In the Ecuadorian Amazon—one of Earth’s high-biodiversity wilderness areas and home to uncontacted indigenous populations—50 years of widespread oil production is jeopardizing tropical ecosystems. Using the Ecuadorian Amazon as a paradigmatic case study, our research explores the feasibility of implementing energy transition paths based on unburnable carbon areas through spatial multicriteria decision analysis that is based on different approaches to territory management. We modeled interactions between oil development and areas with high biocultural sensitivities using environmental, socio-cultural, and oil-related geospatial information. We found that, for all simulations, concessions that should remain unburnable are mainly located in the south-central sector of Ecuadorian Amazon, surrounding the Yasuní National Park and the intangible zone for uncontacted indigenous people, where no reserves have been identified and oil infrastructure (wells, pipelines, etc) has not been deployed. In the Northern sector, particularly along the ‘Auca’ oil road system, the eventual continuation of fossil production requires best practices to minimize environmental impacts and respect human rights. Our spatial multicriteria approach based on geographical criteria can be replicated in different place contexts to explore different scenarios for effective climate mitigation policies.