Quarterly Newsflash: Restrategising, Exploring How Extractivism is Linked to the Energy Transition, and Weighing in on the Nationally Determined Contributions
A 2025 first-quarter newsflash from the ACA team
“If we treat the just energy transition as just another way to switch the sources of energy that we use as opposed to seeing it as an opportunity to undo the systematic inequalities that exist in South Africa that would be extremely concerning. It is important to ensure that the transition does not lose touch with the grassroots.”
Sibusiso Mazomba - Advocacy Coordinator at African Climate Alliance
2025 kicked off in strategy mode. We have spent the first quarter in deep reflection, ideation, and planning meetings – as a team and a broader movement.
Living through a time where the climate justice movement feels more polarised than ever before, we wanted to make sure that we weren’t just continuing with business-as-usual in work, but rather only committing ourselves to work, projects, and campaigns that felt truly impactful. We even questioned what true impact means to us.
One of our core values has always been “Afrocentric”. So, this year, we feel very strongly about living up to our values and our mission intentionally and strategically with a plan to deepen our work in a few key African countries where we already have a significant Ambassador and youth network presence.
While returning to your roots is often a slow process, what we know for certain at the end of this quarter is that, for the year ahead, we are leaning into collaboration more than ever before. To do this, and to continue the work of shifting the climate justice narrative towards one of social justice and equity, partnerships, and collaborations are essential — within our team, with our Ambassadors, and with existing and new aligned partner organisations.
Here’s a closer look at what we have been up to in January, February, and March:
Restrategising and rooting ourselves in impact
As we enter our sixth year as an organisation, realigning with our theory of change has been the starting point. The outcome of this was a reinvigorated organisational strategy that takes into account our core values – Afrocentric, youth-led, inclusive, people-centred, and collaborative.
This organisational strategy informs our programmatic and communications work, ensuring that everything we do is rooted in impact – both qualitative and quantitative.
Although we started as a protest organisation, we are beginning to shift gears toward testing ways of organising and movement building that are attuned to a changing political climate, prioritise youth safety, and engage with the reality that many young people in countries outside of South Africa do not have the same freedoms as youth in South Africa.
Part of this means that we’ll be organising several Solidarity Gatherings aimed at building solidarity amongst youth in Africa in the climate justice movement. Some will be held online and some in person (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Mombasa, Nairobi, Lilongwe, Lusaka, and Harare). At these gatherings, we’ll connect, learn about the many ways in which the climate crisis is affecting our continent, and collaborate on meaningful solutions.
Additionally, the key themes guiding our programmatic work will be:
Inspiring alternatives + Afrocentric climate solutions
Energy ownership and a people-centred Just Transition
Climate and Green colonialism + the roles of Africa's Critical Minerals in the Just Transition
Loss and damage storytelling
Realignment through team-building
While the organisational strategy was the outcome, an important part of what it took to get there was starting our year with a 4-day offsite team-building weekend where we spent time reflecting, thinking out loud, remembering our “why”, and re-aligning as colleagues and changemakers in our own right.
After spending 4 days in nature, we left this team-building with a renewed sense of purpose and comradery – ready to take on the year ahead.
Stilfontein solidarity
Stilfontein will be remembered as one of the worst tragedies in South Africa’s 30 years of democracy. From August 2024, 87 artisanal miners were deserted and left to die by an uncaring state.
We’ve always said that there is no climate justice without social justice. Mining-affected communities were at the centre of our advocacy for our Cancel Coal court case and standing with the Stilfontein miners was an extension of this. So, we could not stay silent.
So, in February, we gathered with several civil society organisations and activist groups to stand in solidarity with the artisanal miners of Stilfontein and demand an end to the state’s complicity in extractive violence — in front of the annual mining Indaba.
Following the picket, we also published an op-ed with Mail&Guardian that unpacked who we consider human, how we understand criminality and who gets the right to a fair trial — and who does not — is deeply tied to the systems that allow for the government’s complicity in the disregard for human rights of those it deems disposable.
Empowering youth to meaningfully engage with the Nationally Determined Contributions
2025 is the year of the Nationally Determined Contributions. Nationally Determined Contributions are climate action plans created by countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the changes that are already occurring due to climate change, mandated by the Paris Agreement.
With each country’s plan being due in September, as a step towards collaborative global efforts to tackle the climate crisis, we believe that youth on the continent play a vital role in having their voices heard.
So, in March, we collaborated on an educational session, with Project 90 by 2030, SAFCEl, and NexGen Gender Advocates, to share about what the NDCs are and why young people should get involved. Then, we hosted an additional two consultations in March, specifically aimed at youth in Congo, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, where they could connect with leaders, experts and practitioners, and youth leaders to build skills, exchange ideas, and drive innovative solutions for local climate challenges – all within the context of the NDC cycle.
The insights from these consultations will be turned into a comprehensive NDC policy submission.
Exploring how the rush towards an energy transition is fuelling extractivism in Africa
Moving away from fossil fuel energy systems is something we advocate for, because renewable energy technologies (such as solar and wind) have a far lower mining footprint than fossil fuels, it provides a quicker, cheaper, and lower-impact means to end energy poverty in Africa, and it does not accelerate climate change as it is not as carbon-intensive as fossil fuel energy. But, these renewable energy technologies are still not perfect. They still require a level of extractivism and mining.
For our first set of online workshops for the year, we focused on extractivism and how it has led to the violation of human rights, environmental harm, and displacement of millions especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the Back2Basics workshop, our Education Coordinator, Chulu Nkasela, unpacked how extractivism is part of the capitalist profit-making machinery that has unethically exploited both the planet and people.
Isaiah Mombilo, the Chairperson of the Congolese Civil Society and Chairperson of the South Africa Refugee-Led Network of the Western Cape (SARLEN), joined the session and shared a first-hand experience of the devastating impact that extractivism has had in his home country.
As the scramble for resources for new, green energy resources continues, the Congo has been a central location as it holds many of the resources used in powering much of the technological resources we use today.
For the ACA Dialogue panel discussion, we were joined by Baraka Lenga, a campaigner against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). EACOP is a massive crude oil pipeline right through the heart of Africa – displacing communities and endangering wildlife. Baraka shared that the anti-extravist #StopEACOP campaign has achieved good results already with nearly 28 banks pulling out of funding the project and at least 27 insurance companies backing away from ensuring the project.
Unpacking why we need a people-centred approach to the just energy transition
Exploring energy ownership is a big thematic focus of our work, this year. As part of this, we joined an expert panel during The Green Connection’s ‘A People-Centred Approach To The Just Energy Transition’ webinar to discuss experiences and challenges with energy access, highlight the socio-economic impacts of oil and gas exploration, and propose ways to solve the energy issues that we face.
As our Advocacy Coordinator, Sibusiso Mazomba, said on the panel, “If we treat the just energy transition as just another way to switch the sources of energy that we use as opposed to seeing it as an opportunity to undo the systematic inequalities that exist in South Africa that would be extremely concerning. It is important to ensure that the transition does not lose touch with the grassroots.”
Speaking about climate change on national radio
One of our big missions is to make climate change education accessible in as many different languages as possible. Our Field Officer, Lisakhanya Mathiso, speaking about what climate change is and why we should care about it on a Zulu and Xhosa broadcast national radio station – Ukhozi FM – was a big win! This show was the first episode of their first-ever monthly show on climate change, aimed at high school youth.
Reminding our Writing Circle of the importance of writing truth to power
About a year ago, we started our ACA Writing Circle – a pan-African virtual gathering space for aspiring writers interested in writing collaborative op-eds on climate justice topics. We kicked off our opening session of the year with a keynote address from Julia Evans who is a renowned climate and biodiversity journalist at the largest specialist climate investigative unit in South Africa, Daily Maverick.
She spoke about the most impactful climate crisis stories she has worked on, why she believes it’s important to keep writing truth to power in today’s climate context, and how to balance robust data, fact-checking, and human-centred storytelling narratives when creating impactful articles with a wide reach.
Sharing our learnings on how the courts can be a part of climate action
After the victory of our Cancel Coal court case, we were asked to speak at the African Climate Reality Project’s Leadership Training on a panel about how the courts can advance climate action. One of the members of our Cancel Coal Youth Task Force, Masego Mokgwetsi, who has been involved in the campaigning around the court case for many years, shared about the legal precedent this victory set and how we brought people’s lived experiences with the climate crisis into the courtroom.
Cleaning a river to show the connections between climate and water justice
Community action and getting people to feel a sense of agency about their environment are vital in showing people that there are many ways to be a part of the solution. Plus, waterways are a key element of climate adaptation work when it comes to alleviating the worst effects of flooding and providing respite in heat zones.
So, we hosted a river cleanup in the community of Soweto with 50 participants including youth, ward councilors, business leaders, and waste reclaimers. 20 bags of rubbish were collected, which were taken to a buy-back centre.
We also gave participants copies of our Activist Guide to prompt them to continue the journey of taking action in their communities.
Teaching our ambassadors about sustainability and the art of facilitation
As our 2024/2025 Ambassadors entered their final six months of the programme, we started the year with two Ambassador masterclasses focusing on sustainability and the art of facilitation. This knowledge and skills will be incorporated into the projects they are working on and will be implemented at the end of their year-long programme.
Selecting our successful Opportunity Fund candidates for 2025
After graduating from the one-year Ambassador Programme, we aim to continue our support for each Ambassador’s change-making initiatives with our Opportunity Fund. The Opportunity Fund is intended to support the sustainability and ongoing efforts of ACA Ambassadors.
Past Ambassadors are encouraged to submit project proposals for climate justice projects they’d like to lead in their communities, to receive a micro-grant and mentorship to help bring their ideas to life.
This quarter, we spent time reviewing the applications to the Fund and selected 7 successful projects that will be carried out this year. We can’t wait to see how they come to life!
