As the climate crisis escalates, the extraction of natural resources—such as oil, gas, minerals and forests— continues to dispossess and marginalize land-connected communities, driving inequality and injustice. Today, the race to mitigate climate change with rapid shifts to renewable energy, transition mineral extraction, and market-based forest protection strategies, for example, risks reproducing and deepening these same injustices by further exploiting communities whose rights are not secure.

There is clear global recognition that the decarbonization of energy systems and the protection of forests are essential in fighting climate change. Evidence shows that under many scenarios, ensuring that local communities have the power and security to manage their lands is an affordable and effective approach for forest and biodiversity conservation that improves community livelihoods. The transition away from fossil fuel-dependent energy systems and towards clean, sustainable models offers a unique chance to deliver justice for communities that have historically suffered harm rather than benefited from these systems. The viability of these transitions is also often enhanced when communities participate fully in their design and governance.

Our goal is to ensure that the priorities of historically disadvantaged communities and land-connected peoples from the Global South–including Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant peoples, and rural communities–are reflected in policies and practices to advance climate justice globally. 

We work to put the people most affected by climate injustice at the center of solutions by supporting efforts to strengthen the land tenure and resource rights of land-connected communities, advocating for energy transition processes that are fair and inclusive, strengthening the capacity of social movements and community organizations to press for their rights and influence policies, and engaging with government, civil society, research-based and private sector actors committed to these same goals.