Confronting the climate crisis in Africa:Just transitions and Extinction Rebellion in Nigeria and South Africa

Climate change is having increasing impacts on the social,economic and political space across the African continent. Thecompounding character of such impacts reinforces existinginequalities, raising important considerations around climatejustice. Growing awareness has seen the emergence of activistsworking for solutions and promoting alternative futures, workingacross scales and sectors to address the complexity of the threats.This article examines environmental activism in Nigeria and SouthAfrica, exploring strategies and claims, and how these are rootedin questions of justice. While environmental movements inNigeria have generally worked to encourage reform and adaptionwithin the existing political economic system, a more systemiccritique and need for fundamental change is observable in SouthAfrica. Drawing on a comparison of Extinction Rebellion in bothcountries, we argue that understandings of just transitions shouldtake into consideration the unequal abilities of social movementsto call for radically transformative and just decarbonisation.