Global — On the fourth day of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond, climate leaders and renewable energy experts spoke on the need for sustainable and long-lasting solutions that transition countries across the globe off fossil fuels and towards renewable energy models.

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To limit long-term global warming to 1.5°C by 2030, as outlined in the Paris Agreement, speakers emphasized that COP30 must be a turning point— moving decisively to phase out fossil fuels and implement equitable energy solutions. Speakers stressed the urgent need to invest in decentralized renewable energy systems that uplift frontline communities, while rejecting false solutions and energy models that perpetuate the ongoing extraction of resources and harm the environment. The discussions and interventions underscored that a just energy transition must center human rights, gender equity, and the leadership of those most impacted.

“The world must immediately transition to 100% renewable, regenerative energy. However, we also have to transform the structures of power that preside over our energy system to ensure there is a just transition,” said Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director at Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network. “Communities need to be included and have power over their energy systems. We are seeing again and again that local energy is a solution. As the global community navigates an energy transition, it is essential that the solutions do not reproduce the same injustices of the fossil fuel economy that prioritizes economic growth over human and environmental health.”

Earlier today, WECAN released its report, “How Local Community Power is Central to a Just Renewable Energy Transition,” detailing scalable global community initiatives that are advancing decentralized and democratized energy solutions. The report arrives at a time when governments and countries are facing challenges to a global just transition away from fossil fuels.

Please, see below for remarks from speakers from the fourth day of the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice on their own work to advance a just transition led by communities:

“In boardrooms, policy circles, and investment forums, local voices are absent or ignored. This disconnect leads to solutions that don’t reflect the realities on the African continent and, too often, it locks communities out of shaping the very systems that are meant to actually serve them,” said Karabo Mokgonyana, Renewable Energy Campaigner at Power Shift Africa. “But luckily, that is not Africa’s whole story: the beauty of what we are seeing on the continent is that countries, like Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, are building decentralized solar microgrids, training women in renewable energy and insulation, and organizing at the community level against fossil fuel development. This transition can not be driven by the same top-down models that are creating the problems that we are seeing on the continent. If energy access continues to be rolled out in a way that reinforces inequality, whether by gender, class, or geography, we are repeating old mistakes with new technologies. So regeneration starts with local ownership, decision making, and political will that puts people over profit.”

“I grew up near a coal mine, and that helped to frame a lot of the challenges that we see firsthand when you come from extractive communities. I started to organize, along with a lot of other young people, to protect our groundwater because they were using our groundwater to transport coal in a high-desert region. There wasn’t any kind of roadmap that anyone gave us; we just felt called to do this because we wanted to make sure we had water for future generations,” said Wahleah Johns (Diné), Former Director of the U.S. DOE Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs, and Co-Founder of Native Renewables, a project featured in the newly released WECAN energy report. “Tribes have been leading the pathway of building sustainable, energy efficiency systems to power themselves and weather climate impacts. This is not something that is just trending in the last few years; this is something that the tribes have been building capacity for a really long time out of necessity, to cut costs and to also own and manage their power. That there is sovereignty.”

“To effectively address the climate crisis, our global transition to renewable energy must be scaled and centered around community involvement and community leadership. This comprehensive approach requires us to tailor our strategies to meet the specific needs of diverse regions and socioecological contexts. This is not just an environmental imperative–it is a moral obligation to ensure that every voice is heard, and every community is supported,” said Roishetta Sibley-Ozane M.S., Founder of Vessel Project of Louisiana and Co-Coordinator of the Gulf South Fossil Finance Hub, who has been working to end fossil fuel projects in her communities in Louisiana and throughout the Gulf South.