Projects/Sustainability/Research

Upcoming Research: How Digital Rights and Climate Justice Intersect

Forthcoming research commissioned by the Ford Foundation, Ariadne and Mozilla will explore grantmaking strategies that can address both issues.

In October 2021, Mozilla, the Ford Foundation and Ariadne kicked off a new research project exploring how digital rights and climate justice intersect. The research will better equip digital rights funders to craft grantmaking strategies that maximize impact on both issues. This effort sprang from a session at Mozfest 2021.

Purpose

We are living in a climate crisis. The science is clear. We need to rapidly change to a more just and sustainable society. This includes investing in a more sustainable internet and transitioning it off of fossil fuels, as we acknowledge that the internet is the world’s largest coal-powered machine. Alongside transitioning the internet to run on renewable energy, we are seeking to better understand how the internet can contribute to and at times undermines the movement for climate and environmental justice.

Often considered separately, the environment and the internet share much in common; both are global in scope, linked to exercising key human rights, and require cooperation and coordination across the planet. From water rights disputes between data centres and local residents, to rampant greenwashing misinformation by fossil fuel companies, the ecological consequences of the internet are just one of the many complex problems at the intersection of climate justice and technology.

Our long-term goal for this partnership is to co-create a long-term funding strategy on the intersection of technology and climate justice that should enable funders to responsibly engage in this new area of work and offer structural support to communities, technologists and advocates towards more sustainable and just futures.

Commissioning Funders

• Mozilla (Michelle Thorne, Sustainable Internet Lead): “The internet is the world’s largest fossil-fuel powered machine, and as funders in the digital rights field, it’s our responsibility to assess and mitigate the internet’s harms not just to human rights, but also to the environment. Examples of harms that come to mind are carbon emissions, extractive industries, and environments and communities impacted with a lack of accountability.”
• Ford (Michael Brennan, Senior Program Officer): “We believe that digital rights and environmental justice networks are often siloed from each other, despite being inextricably linked. And so we need to set a grantmaking agenda that connects these issues today, rather than retrofitting the field years from now. That starts with understanding how we, as digital rights funders, can better approach climate and environmental justice.”
• Ariadne (Julie Broome, Director): “This research will sit within a larger convening effort among funders and practitioners to develop shared understanding and strategies to grow our movements’ understanding of these issues, to invest more impactfully and take more effective action together.”
• with support from Fieke Jansen and Maya Richman.

Phase 1: Research

In October 2021, Mozilla, the Ford Foundation and Ariadne kicked off a new research project exploring how digital rights and climate justice intersect. The research will better equip digital rights funders to craft grantmaking strategies that maximize impact on both issues. This effort sprang from a session at Mozfest 2021.

Research Partners

The research is a bundle of eight research pieces produced by four different organisations each with their own networks and perspectives. Below is the full list of all the research organised by the researcher or organisation that produced the work:

• The Engine Room. The Engine Room helps activists, organisations, and other social change agents make the most of data and technology to increase their impact. "Intersections of digital rights, environmental and climate justice: A landscape review."
• BSR. BSR™ is an impact-driven sustainability organization that works with its global network of leading companies to create a world in which all people can thrive on a healthy planet. "Building a High-Quality Climate Science Information Environment: The Role of Social Media"
• APC.APC is an international network of civil society organisations founded in 1990 dedicated to empowering and supporting people working for peace, human rights, development and protection of the environment, through the strategic use of information and communications technologies (ICTs).

** Mapping the gaps between digital rights and environmental justice actors in the global South
** Environmental and digital rights: Exploring the potential for interplay and mutual reinforcement for better governance
** Extractivism, mining and technology in the global South: Towards a common agenda for action
** Addressing the impact of disinformation on environmental movements through collaboration

• Open Climate collective. The Open Climate collective formed as a collaboration between colleagues from the open technology, data & knowledge movements who felt the pressing need to address the missing opportunities for collaboration in climate action through building a space to understand and instigate links between the planetary and the digital commons.

** Climate Justice & the Knowledge Commons: Opportunities for the digital rights space
** Environmental Justice, Climate Justice, and the Space of Digital Rights

Original Research Scope

Specifically, the scope will consist of:

• a landscape analysis of major existing research at the intersection of digital rights and environmental justice issues
• a network mapping of civic actors, public interest technologists, and individuals working on this intersection
• a set of needs and capacities of civic actors within the ecosystem in order to amplify and accelerate work at this intersection
• an initial analysis of the most impactful/strategic interventions in the short- and medium-term defined by the different stakeholders
• and a set of recommendations for funders, particularly for those focused on digital rights, that supports civic actors working at this intersection.

Community Calls: Hosted by the Engine Room

The Engine Room kicked off their research with two community calls in November and December, which aimed to discuss preliminary research findings, hear from practitioners working on environmental justice and digital rights issues, discuss challenges, and try to identify opportunities for greater collaboration.

Next Steps

This work will complement Mozilla’s existing Sustainability Program and build out Mozilla’s capacity to explore emerging issues. This work also reflects the priorities of the Technology and Society team at Ford Foundation to understand and address social justice issues at the intersection of tech, climate and the environment.

We also seek to learn alongside other funders interested in this intersection and share the results of this research with them and with practitioners.

Contact

If you are interested in this project, please contact Michelle Thorne, Sustainable Internet Lead at Mozilla (michelle at mozillafoundation dot org).