Climate Justice

Why climate justice is needed

Across the world, we are confronting the dramatic consequences of industrial-era climate change (from extreme droughts to floods and heatwaves), which are displacing communities, destroying their livelihoods, and threatening ecosystems.

To mitigate and avoid the worst effects of climate change, world leaders and policymakers have called for profound structural transformations and a “just energy transition”. Countries and institutions across the globe are now scaling up renewable and low-carbon energy solutions, while phasing out fossil fuels. But behind the slogans about “green growth” and “sustainability”, the current approach to the just energy transition is marred with contradictions, as it has been used as a smokescreen to keep pursuing a neoliberal and extractivist approach. Public development banks (PDBs) are promoting large-scale projects and false solutions – such as green hydrogen, geothermal or nuclear plants – which are neither green nor sustainable, as they violate human rights and contribute to environmental degradation.

The Global South sits at a critical position within this transition. Despite being the least responsible for the climate crisis, Global South communities are being disproportionately impacted both by the impacts of climate change, but also by the rush towards renewable energy.

This is why our members and partners are calling for a community-led just energy transition that recognizes communities as key decision-makers — with women and Indigenous Peoples at the forefront — and place their knowledge and priorities at the center of global energy policies.