Reparation for extractivist genocide: harm, responsibility and implications for a just transition

<p dir="ltr">There has been increasing focus on the links between genocide and extractive megaprojects. Meanwhile, proposals for a ‘just transition’ to low carbon energy are increasingly concerned with ecological, social and cultural repair for harm caused by fossil fuel extraction. Yet there has been limited attention to proposals for reparation that might follow from recognition of (i) the genocidal harm attendant upon energy resource extraction and (ii) the structural dynamics and historical responsibilities giving rise to genocidal processes. In this article, we consider what is at stake in giving weight to allegations of genocide in the context of fossil fuel extraction and explore the implications for how movements for a just energy transition might approach reparation. Putting dominant legal narratives of harm and responsibility into dialogue with the epistemic and political claims of movements seeking reparation for genocide produced in contexts of fossil fuel extraction, we undertake a decolonial re-reading of established provisions for reparation in the wake of mass atrocity. On this basis, we re-think reparation beyond material repair, to include demands for truth and non-repetition that address the legal categories and architectures that continue to underpin genocidal processes of extraction within the prevailing model of energy transition.</p>