Grassroots climate and environmental justice movements are essential to a just transition away from extractive energy systems. From opposing East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) construction in Uganda and Tanzania to building autonomous solar energy systems that connect Indigenous villages in Ecuador, movements are pushing back against fossil fuel expansion and creating community-driven energy solutions. Time and again, their solutions have proven to be the most effective, equitable balms for climate and environmental crises.
In Latin America, two Global Greengrants Fund grantee partners, Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales (OLCA) and the Yuturi Warmi, are leading a just transition in their communities. They are educating about the potential harms of replicating extractivist models in renewable energy systems and building the power of Indigenous communities with deep, ancestral ties to their land to protect vital ecosystems and traditional knowledge.
Together, their stories build a compelling case for fair, regenerative futures that prioritize grassroots movements and local communities facing the worst effects of extractivism and climate change. As climate funders, we must support these actions.
The Lithium Fever: Shadows of the Energy Transition
“The energy transition is undoubtedly necessary, but we need a transparent energy transition that does not sacrifice communities and ecosystems once again for the benefit of big corporations.”
Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales (OLCA) is studying the impacts of lithium mining on the Northern Andes’ unique and complex ecosystems while advocating for a just energy transition that centers communities over profits.
In recent years, lithium mining has increased worldwide, including in the Andes, driven by rising demand for “green” renewable energy technologies such as solar panels and electric vehicles, which depend on lithium. This is damaging Andes ecosystems, depleting the water supply, and disrupting Indigenous and local livelihoods for people like the Colla, who have lived in harmony with the land for centuries, practicing transhumance and sustainable agriculture and livestock farming.
In this short documentary, titled “La Fiebre de Litio” or “The Lithium Fever,” OLCA shares what it’s like to live in the world’s “lithium triangle” today, and asks the international community to stand with grassroots movements opposing lithium mining expansion.
OLCA’s work is part of a broad movement in the Northern Andes. For a decade, Global Greengrants Fund has supported nearly a dozen grassroots groups in the region, helping them resist mining expansion and preserve Indigenous ways of life. Their efforts include monitoring ecosystems, studying the impacts of lithium mining, sharing their findings with the community, organizing regional gatherings for Indigenous communities, and more.
For funders, OLCA’s video emphasizes why the solutions we support must prioritize communities first, or risk causing further harm.
Yuturi Warmi: Indigenous Women-Led Solutions to a Just Transition
“We are sending a message to other communities that we as women have chosen to work and teach our children how to take care of our territory, our environment, our rivers, our forests.”
In the Napo region of Ecuador, the Yuturi Warmi, named after a particularly strong ant species found in the Amazon, formed an Indigenous Guard in 2021 consisting of 35 Kichwa women to defend ancestral territory from extractive mining practices.
In this video, the Yuturi Warmi share how they monitor the land for illegal mining activity, ensuring that communities can respond quickly to threats. They also build women’s economic power through sustainable handicraft and agroecological activities, creating alternative sources of income for their community free from mining industries.
The Ecuadorian Amazon serves as an essential carbon sink and biodiversity hotspot, as well as an ancestral home for many Indigenous Peoples. Yet, it continues to face the threat of illegal mining, which leads to deforestation, ecosystem damage, and harm to the livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples.
The Yuturi Warmi are building a world beyond transactional mining systems that is centered on right relationship with each other and ecosystems. They are part of a strong movement for conservation and Indigenous autonomy in the Ecuadorian Amazon. For decades, Global Greengrants has supported Ecuadorian groups in running national and international campaigns, gathering Indigenous Peoples and environmental defenders from the region for strategic planning, monitoring oil activity, cultivating environmentally friendly agricultural practices, and more.
As funders, supporting these solutions is critical—because a just transition is not only about ending fossil fuel use, but transitioning to a world where communities are centered over profit.
Funding Regenerative, Community-led Solutions
OLCA and the Yuturi Warmi highlight the wisdom and expertise that lives within grassroots climate and environmental justice movements.
For Global Greengrants Fund, community-driven, grassroots energy solutions like these are fundamental to our grantmaking approach. In 2024 alone, we made 467 grants in 78 countries totaling $5.47 million in support of just transition efforts. These grants have supported other essential just transition work, from Gurupau Group in Kenya pushing back against a proposed wind energy project that will displace local Indigenous Peoples, to Climate Rangers Jogja building a sustainable micro-hydro power plant that’s mindful of its environmental impacts on an Indonesian village, to Society for Sustainable Development SU advocating for community members to recycle lead-acid batteries that otherwise pollute the ecosystem in Azerbaijan. The hundreds of groups we support each year to advance a just transition are implementing effective, sustainable, and scalable solutions—the more we resource them, the more they thrive.
As climate funders—and indeed as people committed to a just transition away from fossil fuels—it is crucial to witness the impacts our extractive global systems have on local communities and to stand with grassroots climate and environmental defenders who are building truly just and regenerative solutions. This is the only way out of the climate crisis.