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Introduction

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The Global Justice Program (GJP) at the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley is dedicated to bridging and supporting climate justice movements worldwide. In our research and in this white paper, we focus on how Asia-Pacific climate, agri-food, and environmental organizations are combating the drivers of the climate crisis, managing the impacts of the climate crisis, and forging strategies to build climate resilience. We do so to help ensure that efforts to support climate justice in Asia-Pacific are accountable to the objectives, strategies, and activities of Asia-Pacific organizations and communities, and to build robust and impactful relationships with Asia-Pacific organizations.

The Asia-Pacific region sits at the center of the global struggle over climate justice and just transitions.1 Long shaped by histories of colonial extraction and uneven development, the region now faces the possible reproduction of such dynamics under the guise of sustainability–what critics call “climate colonialism.”2 These new extractive frontiers are emerging around transition resources and renewable energy manufacturing and infrastructures.3These dynamics are transforming landscapes, economies, and livelihoods—often in ways that privilege global supply chain imperatives and global corporate power over community well-being and ecological integrity.

Yet across the Asia-Pacific region, movements for climate resilience and justice are pushing back against global supply chain imperatives and global corporate power—past and present—and demanding transitions that are not only low-carbon but also equitable, locally grounded, and reparative. These intersecting forces are shaping visions and practices of a just transition in the Asia-Pacific, and communities, institutions, and policymakers are navigating the contradictions between extraction and empowerment in the era of decarbonization.4

Bridging and advancing climate justice and just transitions movements5 worldwide requires taking seriously these challenges and opportunities, and understanding how Asia-Pacific climate, agri-food, and environmental organizations are negotiating them. To ensure that efforts to support climate justice and just transitions in Asia-Pacific are accountable to the objectives, strategies, and activities of Asia-Pacific organizations and peoples themselves, and to build robust and impactful relationships with Asia-Pacific organizations, the GJP carried out two complementary methods of data collection:

  1. online content analysis of materials (websites, publications, and social media) by Asia-Pacific climate, agri-food, and environmental organizations;
  2. a comprehensive survey of Asia-Pacific climate, agrifood, and environmental organizations.

This study analyzed data from 796 organizations spanning 60 countries and territories across the Asia-Pacific region. Many of these organizations operate as networks, linking local grassroots movements to address a wide range of environmental issues, including agricultural sustainability, climate resilience, and Indigenous rights. The research covered countries and territories across six subregions of the Asia-Pacific: Central Asia, East Asia, Oceania, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Asia.

In our online content analysis, we focus on whether Asia-Pacific organizations explicitly use the Just Transition (JT) framework—an umbrella framework that encompasses multiple principles, processes, and practices (e.g., sustainable development, food sovereignty, agrarian reform) that build economic and political power to shift from extractive economies to regenerative ones. We first focus on the explicit use of the JT framework in Asia-Pacific because it is a framework that has been increasingly adopted in the Global North, and because Global North collaborations with Asia-Pacific countries, territories, and organizations are increasingly taking shape under this banner. We ask:

  • Where in the Asia-Pacific region is the JT framework used, by which organizations, and in what sectors?

Ultimately, we aim to identify how such organizations employ multiple principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from extractive economies to regenerative economies—whether under the banner of the Just Transition framework or other frameworks and principles that foster just transitions. We ask:

  • What are such organizations’ populations and issues of interest? What frameworks do they use?
  • What are their needs and what support do they request? What is their assessment of the activities of non-Asia-Pacific civil society and government organizations?
  • What are their demands upon such organizations and the international community?

Across our online content analysis and survey analysis, we aim to shed light on the multiple principles, processes, and practices of Asia-Pacific climate, agri-food, and environmental organizations that collectively foster Asia-Pacific just transitions, and to help ensure that Global North collaborations with Asia-Pacific countries, territories, and organizations are accountable to such work. The remainder of this paper outlines our research methodology, our findings, the significance of these findings, and a call to action for future research and advocacy.

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  • 1Though the Just Transition framework is not inherently about the climate crisis, it is often invoked in the context of energy transitions away from fossil fuels and to alternative energy sources. See Becca Wilgosh, Alevgul H. Sorman, and Iñaki Barcena, “When Two Movements Collide: Learning from Labour and Environmental Struggles for Future Just Transitions,” Futures 137 (2002): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328722000039
  • 2 Hamza Hamouchene and Katie Sandwell, eds., Dismantling Green Colonialism: Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region (London: Pluto Press / Transnational Institute, 2023), https://www.tni.org/en/dossier/dismantling-green-colonialism.
  • 3United Nations, Extractive Industries: Transition to Sustainable Systems. Regional Policy Brief. 2021, https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2021/05/final_regional_brief_on_extractive_industries.pdf.
  • 4 Bishwa Nath Tiwari and Sangji Lee, “Building Policy Coherence to Foster a ‘Just Transition’ Across Asia and the Pacific,” SDG Asia-Pacific, April 30, 2025, https://sdgasiapacific.net/stories/building-policy-coherence-foster-%E2%80%98just-transition%E2%80%99-across-asia-and-pacific.
  • 5The Just Transition (JT) framework is an umbrella framework encompassing multiple principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from extractive economies to regenerative ones. It centers the leadership and rights of workers, frontline communities, and marginalized groups in shaping this transformation, ensuring that the move toward sustainability also advances social, racial, and environmental justice. Because such manifold efforts are place-based and contextual, we refer to them broadly as “just transitions.” Hossein Ayazi, Dimitri Diagne, Elsadig Elsheikh, and Basima Sisemore, “African Just Transitions: Assessing the Activities, Strategies, and Needs of African Climate, Agri-food, and Environmental Organizations” (Berkeley, CA: Othering & Belonging Institute, 2023), belonging.berkeley.edu/african-just-transitions.