A new report reveals the global energy transition where the region holds 70% of the world’s renewable potential but receives only 3% of the investment, while facing a growing climate debt and the highest rate of violence against environmental defenders.
On the eve of COP30, which will take place in the Amazon region, the organization Oxfam has issued a severe warning about the current course of the global energy transition. According to its latest analysis, this vital process to mitigate the climate crisis is being capitalized by rich nations and large corporations, replicating colonial dynamics that marginalize Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and exacerbate their historical inequalities.
The report highlights an alarming disparity: although Latin America concentrates 70% of the world’s potential for solar and wind energy generation, the region captures only 3% of the global investment destined for clean energy. This imbalance, described by the organization as “green grabbing“, leaves the Global South trapped in a cycle of indebtedness while its resources are exploited for the benefit of the Global North.
Debt instead of fair financing
One of the critical points highlighted is the structure of current climate financing. 80% of the funds reaching developing countries come in the form of debt, not grants. This exacerbates the financial burden of nations that already accumulate a combined external debt of 11.7 trillion dollars, a figure that exceeds by 30 times the estimated cost to ensure universal access to clean energy by 2030.
Gloria Isabel García-Parra, Oxfam’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, described the situation as a “new climate colonialism“. According to García-Parra, industrialized countries, historically responsible for global warming, now control the transition at the expense of the most vulnerable territories, plundering resources and displacing populations, especially in the Amazon.
The Amazon: epicenter of violence and resistance
The report emphasizes that the Amazon, vital for planetary climate stability and home to more than 400 indigenous peoples, is at the center of this injustice. Oxfam’s Multi-Country Amazon Initiative warns of simultaneous threats including intensive extractivism, land grabbing, and the weakening of environmental regulations.
This pressure on the territory has a devastating human cost: LAC accounts for 75% of the murders of environmental defenders worldwide, with the Amazon as the main focus of this violence. Viviana Santiago, director of Oxfam Brazil, emphasized that indigenous women, Afro-descendants, and peasants bear the greatest burden of this multiple crisis, despite being the ones leading real sustainable alternatives in the territory.
Demands for a transformative COP30
Ahead of the climate summit, Oxfam urges governments to radically reorient the energy transition to make it truly fair. Among its main demands are:
- Direct and debt-free financing: Establish transparent funds that reach communities without bureaucratic intermediaries and under principles of reparation for losses and damages.
- Local protagonism: Ensure effective participation of indigenous peoples, women, and youth in decision-making.
- Protection for defenders: Implement binding mechanisms to sanction companies and states that violate human rights.
- Rejection of false solutions: Critically review carbon markets and other initiatives that do not incorporate social risk analysis and respect for territorial rights.
The organization concludes that COP30 must be a turning point to reshape the energy landscape, moving from a model centered on corporate profits to one that prioritizes life and social justice.
