Centuries of exploitation of both nature and people have pushed the planet’s life-supporting systems to near breaking point. But the twin climate and biodiversity crises will not impact us all equally, with those who have contributed the least to global warming bearing the brunt of climate change and nature degradation.
The top 10 per cent of emitters are responsible for close to 50 per cent of all greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, while the bottom 50 per cent contribute just 12 per cent.
The impact on those suffering the effects of global warming and climate change is also highly skewed. For example, small-island developing states (SIDS) contribute less than 1 per cent of GHGs yet will be hit the hardest by the rising sea-levels and extreme weather caused by global warming.
At the same time, poor women and children are up to14 times more likely to be killed by climate-fuelled disasters compared with men; in low-income families, women are heavily reliant on agriculture, which is deeply affected by climate change; women and children also comprise the overwhelming majority of displaced peoples, a group disproportionately affected by global warming.
“Currently, more than 750mn people lack access to energy, which makes it essential that this energy transition should be conducted in a fair and inclusive manner” says Vera Pinto Pereira, Executive Board Member and Foundation President at EDP, a global energy company that produces green energy in almost 30 countries.
Access to basic resources for subsistence must be prioritised on the global agenda
To address these injustices, those at the forefront of the energy transition have a responsibility to ensure that their policies and actions are implemented fairly, closing the gap that environmental injustice has opened up between north and south, rich and poor, as well as across genders. Otherwise, the transition towards net zero runs the risk of exacerbating, rather than healing, these divides.
Global energy company EDP has taken up that challenge, positioning the issue as one of the dominant themes in this month’s We Choose Earth Tour, an event designed to foster a global movement aimed at training, inspiring and energising institutions to play a greater role in the shift to clean energy.
EDP has announced investments of €25bn between now and 2026, with the vast majority (€21bn) focused on renewables, and is investing directly into communities in all the countries where it operates, across four continents, to help secure a just energy transition.
With the main focus on initiatives to combat energy poverty, promote access to energy and energy efficiency, and implement solutions for access to solar energy or electric mobility, the group has committed to spending more than €200mn by 2026 on a diverse range of programmes to support communities that bear the brunt of the energy burden.
“One of our primary focuses is to promote greater efficiency and energy inclusion, especially in the most vulnerable communities,” explains Pinto Pereira.
We have strengthened our social impact investment in this specific mission, leaving no one behind in the effort for a just transition
In Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, 58 per cent of the population is under 19. Although almost all girls attend primary school, only 10 per cent complete secondary. Some 40 per cent have their first child before 18, and Mozambican girls have a 70 per cent probability of becoming single parents and household providers before they reach 35. It is a cycle of poverty that affects generation after generation.
Girl Move, a completely sustainable academy powered by solar energy and clean energy solutions, helps young women in Mozambique to access education and build careers through a mentorship programme. Part of EDP’s A2E (Access to Energy) assistance programme, Girl Move is helping to change outcomes by investing in the multiplying effect of girls' education and in leadership training.
In Nigeria, Koolboks, another project supported by the A2E CSR Fund, is changing lives through a sustainable model to finance off-grid solar refrigerators for female fish-traders, who can lose around 30 per cent of their product due to a lack of affordable, reliable refrigeration. Faced with an unpredictable grid, traders use diesel generators, which are harmful for the environment and expensive. This project aims to provide 150 affordable solar-powered Koolhome refrigerators in eight markets across Lagos.
Through programmes such as these, companies involved in the energy transition can lead the way on environmental and ecological justice, ensuring that the path towards net zero becomes an opportunity to narrow the social divide rather than widen it.
