Project title
Energy Transition and Climate (In)Justice in Indigenous Territories: A Comparative Study of La Guajira (Colombia) and Brazil
Project abstract
Dayanna Palmar Uriana is a human rights advocate, lawyer, and journalist. As a Postgraduate Research Student, her PhD research explores the intersections between energy transition, climate justice, and Indigenous knowledge systems, focusing on renewable energy development in Indigenous territories. Centring the Wayuu Indigenous people in La Guajira, Colombia, and engaging Brazil as a comparative context, the project examines how large-scale energy transition projects can reproduce, or potentially challenge, historical patterns of dispossession, inequality, and territorial conflict.
The research investigates how Indigenous cosmologies, epistemologies, and territorial governance systems can contribute to rethinking dominant approaches to climate action and shaping more just and equitable energy futures. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches across environmental justice, political ecology, and Indigenous studies, the project explores questions of self-determination, ecological sustainability, and multi-species justice in the context of global climate transitions.