![Colloquium Poster with title, time](/geography/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/article-image/greacens_et_al_colloquium_11-19-21.jpg?itok=9zI5MouK)
Kyi PhyoÌý- Foundation Renewable Energy and Ecology
Shoon So OoÌý-ÌýWorld Wildlife Fund Myanmar
Chuenchom GreacenÌý-Ìýindependent consultant
Dr.ÌýChris GreacenÌý-Ìýindependent consultant
Join Zoom Meeting
November 19, 2021
12:00 - 1:30 PM
Co-sponsored by CenterÌýfor Asian Studies
Myanmar is one of the least electrified countries in the world. The country’s Ministry of EnergyÌýand Electricity claims (over estimates?) that 50 percent of the population has been electrified asÌýof 2020, and the power consumption per capita is about twenty times less than the worldÌýaverage. For rural households, access to electricity is lower still. Prior to 2011, five decades ofÌýmilitary rule left many communities fending for themselves with regards to electricity, leading toÌýa number of resourceful innovations. At the same time, the country has been a major exporter ofÌýenergyÌý--with Myanmar in long-term contracts to deliver natural gas through pipelines toÌýThailand and China and plans for huge hydroelectric facilities that would primarily exportÌýelectricity to China and Thailand. In ethnic minority areas (Shan, Karen, Kareni, Katchin, Mon)Ìýenergy projects have been implicated in human rights abuses including deliberate flooding ofÌývillages and forced labor. This talk will explore Myanmar’s energy situation and how this situation changed during andÌýafter its decade of democracy from 2011 to 2021 followed by the military coup and violentÌýcrackdown; the role of Thailand and China as exploiters of Myanmar energy sources;ÌýMyanmar’s deployment of clean decentralized energy including community-centered energyÌýdevelopment, and the complicated relationship between states/regions and the unionÌýgovernment vis-a-vis energy development.