Green energy’s unseen toll on our river systems

At global climate forums, the clean energy transition is framed as progress —necessary, urgent, and inevitable.

- Arisara Lekkham

Governments reaffirm commitments to move away from fossil fuels and accelerate renewable energy, electric vehicles, and digital infrastructure. From a distance, the pathway to a greener future appears orderly and hopeful. From where I stand in Chiang Rai, it feels far less balanced.

Clean technologies are often discussed as if they exist independently of place. In reality, they are built on minerals — gold, rare earths, copper, lithium —whose extraction, processing, and refining are expanding rapidly across the Mekong region. This is not an abstract supply chain. It is a physical one, rooted in rivers and communities that absorb its consequences long before benefits reach global markets.

Northern Thailand shares several major rivers with Myanmar, which are sources of water, food, livelihoods, and local economies. Many people here grew up swimming in them. Today, parents hesitate to let their children enter the water. That loss of confidence carries real social and economic costs in a region that depends on its natural landscape.