Consume less or grow sustainably? Matching energy systems with Indigenous worldviews in Panama

This article explores how energy systems, if reconceptualized and reordered to deliver greater equity, could exponentially improve livelihoods and livelihood pathways of Panama’s Ngäbe and Buglé communities which currently lack energy access. Inevitably, the choice of energy systems and related infrastructures will not only bring benefits, but also impose burdens on local ecosystems as well as communities living near project sites. In biodiversity-rich Indigenous contexts, including Panama’s comarcas, making informed decisions about energy systems that are yet to be developed, implies understanding the impacts and potential risks of embedding such technical systems into areas with high levels of biodiversity and species density, whose vulnerability will only increase with climate change. A conceptual framework used in the study combines energy justice research perspectives with the energy–water–food–climate nexus as an approach to local livelihood planning. This approach makes it possible to treat the concept of ‘energy’ within a broader framework of social–ecological systems and safe operating spaces, while applying it to a specific context (Ngäbe–Buglé comarca, Panama). In this way, the study extrapolates how energy justice issues co-relate with social–ecological inequities, and at the same time present risks for the future of the comarca, with implications for broader contexts.