In the Atacama Desert of Chile, the promise of clean energy for the world comes at a steep cost. Beneath the salt flats that power electric vehicles in the Global North, Indigenous communities struggle with water scarcity and environmental degradation. The imbalance between the consequences for the South and North shows that the pursuit of a sustainable future is built on the same unequal structures that defined colonialism.
This unjust phenomenon has been titled climate colonialism and can be broken down into two facets: impact and extraction. The first aspect of climate colonialism resides in the impact, specifically that while the Global North is responsible for the majority of the emissions fueling the climate crisis, countries of the Global South, many of which already face abject poverty, are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. For example, in South Sudan, 50 percent of the population is exposed to flooding and lives in poverty. The ongoing conflict has further exacerbated displacement and poor living conditions among the population, while in India, farmers have suffered crop losses due to unusual snowstorms and exceptional heatwaves. The second aspect of climate colonialism resides in the extraction of resources and the fact that the materials needed for renewable energy are linked to violence and exploitation. The cobalt needed for the rechargeable batteries of electric vehicles and electronics has created systemic violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where much of this mining is done by young children, leading to health issues and human rights abuses in the region. The Global North’s pursuit of a “greener” future perpetuates inequality and exploitation that parallel colonial patterns.
Historical Origins of Climate Colonialism
Climate colonialism is not a new idea and originated in previous systems of land grabs for personal economic gain. The French colonizers of Africa banned communities from practicing their ancient traditions of subsistence farming and forced them to clear the forests to allow for the development of cotton plantations throughout Equatorial Africa. When the land became infertile, colonial scientists would refer to this as “desertification” and would blame tribal methods for this degradation.
Along with originating the practices that drive climate change, colonialism created the economic dependence that the western world currently holds on natural resources. Commodity dependence includes the grain in our meals and cotton in our clothing; 85 percent of this trade is reliant on the world’s least developed countries. As temperatures rise and the conditions change, agricultural yield is hindered, and with that, the amount of capital or national income. The result is a cycle of poverty and inequality that was originally forged by colonialism.
Unequal Climate Impacts
The consequences of the climate crisis are not distributed equally. In Bangladesh, rising sea levels have already displaced millions and turned fertile farmland into saltwater. Across the Pacific Islands, entire communities face the thought of complete cultural erasure as ancestral lands sink, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, prolonged droughts have destroyed crops and intensified famine that has forced families to migrate.
These environmental changes reveal how the Global South continues to suffer the most from a crisis it did not create. Climate change has been another form of inequality that traces the same history of exploitation that was once connected to imperialism.
Green Extraction
While the Global North moves toward renewable energy and celebrates the prospect of sustainability, it actively ignores the exploitative cycle being created. The push for green tech like electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels has created a global demand for raw materials like cobalt, lithium, and nickel, which are predominantly found in developing countries.
In the Atacama Desert in Chile and across the “Lithium Triangle” of Bolivia, Indigenous groups face water shortages as lithium extraction drains groundwater from an already dry region. The ecological damage threatens the livelihoods and sacred ecosystems of the Atacama people that have been cultivated over centuries. In Indonesia, the development of nickel mining, which is needed for the batteries of electric cars, has led to deforestation and contaminated marine habitats, and in Brazil, parts of the rainforest have been cleared out for biofuel crops like sugarcane, palm oil, soybean, and corn.
Coercion vs. Autonomy
Although some of these efforts are driven by countries like Brazil, which promote biofuel expansion, this choice reflects coercion instead of autonomy because global economic pressures compel the country to adopt “green” solutions to remain competitive in the global system. The promotion of renewable industries is often portrayed as national progress, but in reality, it shows a form of dependency where developing countries must align policy with the environmental agendas of wealthier nations, or they risk inflation.
Until the mission toward sustainability is equally allocated among all countries and includes social and environmental justice, it is not a feasible concept. Genuine autonomy requires that each nation can pursue sustainability on its own terms without the coercive pressures of global markets and unfair power dynamics.
Climate Finance and International Organizations
Climate colonialism also manifests in the financial systems meant to address it. Many countries in the Global South are expected to finance adaptation and mitigation through loans from institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. These loans often come with conditions that reinforce economic dependency and keep poor nations indebted while wealthier nations retain control over global environmental policy.
Recent initiatives like the Loss and Damage Fund were designed to correct these inequalities but have been criticized for replicating the same hierarchies where those most responsible for emissions dictate how aid is distributed. The decision-making power within the fund is allocated to wealthy nations, which have full control over who receives aid and how it is utilized, replicating a paternalistic model. Climate finance in the current state risks becoming a new mode of colonial control that is added to the physical concerns.
Resistance and Decolonial Climate Justice
Despite these injustices, movements across these countries are challenging these structures with activists reclaiming agency of the land. These efforts show that climate justice is connected to decolonization. For example, in Kenya, environmentalist Wangarĩ Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, which has planted over 50 million trees and empowered women in rural areas through climate-focused initiatives. The success of this movement shows that restoration can coexist with social justice if it is driven by local communities instead of external interests.
In Ecuador, the Yasuní-ITT was an initiative to keep oil reserves beneath the Yasuní rainforest unexploited in exchange for international compensation, which goes against the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, and it is still seen as one of the most significant climate victories. These efforts demonstrate that climate justice and decolonization are inseparable. True progress must come from those most affected and not those most responsible who remain detached from harmful consequences.
What Can Be Done
The fight against climate change is often framed as a technological challenge, but it has developed into a moral one. Climate colonialism exposes how inequality has become interchangeable with the global response to the collapse of the environment and how the Global North’s wealth and progress have long depended on the extraction of the Global South’s land, labor, and resources, initially under colonialism and now under the blanket of sustainability.
Addressing this imbalance requires structural changes to both ecological and economic systems. Countries responsible for the majority of emissions must support restoring the regions that are most harmed by extraction. This restructuring would be defined by investing in environmental repair programs in areas like the Atacama Desert, the Congo Basin, and Indonesia, where ecosystems have become fully degraded by mining for natural resources like lithium, cobalt, and nickel. These measures should not replicate the current top-down aid structure but focus on local ownership through Indigenous land rights and community-led restoration.
Financially, debt cancellation and a more equitable climate finance system are important to allow sustainable futures for the whole world without sacrificing sovereignty. International organizations should shift from conditional loans toward grants and reparations that acknowledge the responsibility of western nations. To build a livable future, this imbalance needs to be corrected, and climate solutions have to center the voices of those most deeply affected. Only through genuine equity can sustainability become a shared, global reality.
Featured Image Source: openDemocracy
