Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative: A Case Study on International Climate Change Mitigation Narratives
Date
2014
Authors
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
In 2007, Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa presented a novel climate change mitigation
plan to the world: Ecuador would leave 846 million barrels of crude oil untouched beneath the
Amazon if the global community reciprocated with a contribution of 3.6 billion dollars – half of
the oil’s market value (McAvoy 27). The Yasuní-ITT Initiative vowed to preserve immense
biodiversity, protect indigenous groups, and prevent the emission of 410 million tons of carbon
dioxide (Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues). In 2013, Correa abandoned the initiative,
lamenting the lack of international support, and approved oil drilling in the Yasuní (Correa,
“Anuncio a la Nación” 3). This analysis utilized Correa’s speeches and government documents
to identify the prevailing narratives employed in the initiative. Those narratives – common but
unequal responsibility for climate change, a reconceptualization of value, and Ecuador as martyr
and revolutionary – reflect a framework that simultaneously criticized and sought authority from
the capitalist ideal. The failure of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative to capture the hearts and wallets of
the world provides insight into the dominant global forces and perspectives on climate change
mitigation policy.
Description
Submitted to the Undergraduate Library Research Award scholarship competition: 2014-2015. 18 pages.
Keywords
Yasuni-ITT Initiative, Climate change mitigation, Rafael Correa