Building movement capacity at the intersection of digital and environmental justice

For years, many researchers and activists – especially in the Global Majority – have been shining the spotlight on the massive impact on the climate and environment caused by the never-ending thirst for tech seen around the world.

From the human rights abuses and degradation of natural habitats and indigenous land caused by the extraction of raw materials to make chips for AI, to the extreme consumption of water and energy needed for vast data centers, to the mountains of toxic e-waste caused by the perceived disposability of gadgets: the harms are ever-growing. We know that digital technologies and the ideology of technosolutionism (upheld by powerful tech CEOs, investors, and politicians) are deeply complicit in the global climate emergency.

Within the digital rights movement in Europe, EDRi identified in 2024 a number of vital opportunities to bring the fight for the climate closer to the movement for digital rights. We recognised that even if we achieve the protection of digital fundamental rights for people in Europe, we won’t achieve justice if we don’t address the massive global impact (and disproportionate harm towards communities in Global Majority countries) stemming from European tech production, use and misuse.

Strategic and collaborative EU advocacy interventions

Catalysed by the Green Screen Coalition’s support between the period of 1 January 2024 and 30 September 2025, EDRi was able to launch a new dedicated work-stream. As a result, we formed a new working group which brings together members of the digital rights field from within and outside the EDRi network, as well as organisations working on the environment and climate from various perspectives. The aim of the group is to foster collaborative work and capacity-building, knowing that by working together, the outputs will be even greater than the sum of our parts. Eleven digital rights groups (including EDRi) and ten environmental/climate organisations have already contributed to the working group in various capacities. At the same time, we note that this categorisation of our organisations is increasingly less salient: some digital rights groups have long worked with an environmental lens, and vice versa. Nevertheless, the group’s central strategic focus on the intersections climate-digital justice has been much-needed. Through its existence, the forum helps to consolidate digital and environment as two sides of the same coin, rather than discrete areas of work.

A significant landmark for the new group’s work was the intensive 2-day narrative and strategy working group workshop that we hosted in March and April 2025, the outputs of which have been informing our work ever since. We have published a landing page to present the vision and joint work of our collective , meant to function as a living resource for ongoing work.

Almost a year since its official launch, the group had a great impact on our broader thinking. For example, the EDRi network adopted in May 2025 its new 5-year network strategy, in which “work[ing] towards environmental and climate justice” has been embedded as part of our collective vision, coupled with reflections on Europe’s positionality and responsibility in the world. This is one example of how the thinking and strategy of the tech policy field is bringing the environment more into its core mission, driving important conversations which will pave the way for more informed policy-making in the future.

Another milestone for our work has been the Tech & Society Summit in October 2024, co-hosted by over forty civil society organisations including EDRi. From running a repair clinic, to hosting a panel on the environmental impacts of tech, to a fun quiz about environmental justice, the Summit creatively put the protection of people, planet and democracy at its heart. We were then able to take the collective demands and visions of the Summit and turn them into a shared manifesto which was co-signed by four environmental groups. We used this as a basis for our outreach to the new European Parliament, clearly emphasising to new decision-makers that the climate and environment are key priorities across European and global civil society.

This push at the Tech & Society Summit has also been enabled and expanded thanks to the mainstreaming of environmental justice within EDRi’s flagship annual conference, Privacy Camp. At Privacy Camp’s January 2024 edition, a range of CSOs critically examined the role of data centers, whilst another group deconstructed the EU’s myth of the “twin” digital and climate transition. For the Privacy Camp September 2025 edition, the environment continues to take a central role – including a co-creation session to jointly deliver key communications materials, a key output for our working group.

More, EDRi convened several workshops at external events on this topic. Notably, EDRi organised a session at Computer Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) 2025, with members of the environmental justice and digital rights working group, which was focused on a holistic impact of technology on environmental justice. The participants who spanned across academia and CSOs, with more of a technical focus expressed interest and were very engaged with this perspective. During a hosted meetup and discussion at RightsCon 2025 we were able to to have a broad range of attendees from civil society world wide, who were very eager to discuss the topic and welcomed the space and the holistic perspective.

Challenges and unexpected outcomes in our work

At the same time, the work has not been without its challenges. Whilst the Tech & Society Summit had good attendance from decision-makers from the Green party and other parties committed to tackling the climate emergency and protecting the environment, the topic continues to be perceived negatively by pro-industry lawmakers, making outreach towards these groups a challenge. The broader political climate – where innovation at all costs and technosolutionism are the order of the day, and civil society are increasingly suppressed, intimidated and de-funded– is increasingly hostile, making all our work harder.

Environmental groups have also been the most significant target of attacks from the far-right. In effect, the movement’s capacity for collective action is stretched thinner than ever, as resources are redirected to tackling an existential threat. More, the EU’s deregulation agenda, which has been watering down protections for people and planet, has put the EU’s Green Deal, climate targets, nature restoration and other vital efforts at the very top of its hit-list.

Finally, the increasing amount of digital dossiers has put pressure also on digital rights organisations. As capacities were limited also within this movement, some digital rights organisations recognised the importance of working at the intersection between digital and environmental justice, but decided to direct their insufficient means towards different priorities.

All these challenges point to the need for more ongoing collaboration, not less, and we have therefore been positively surprised that the members of the working group have continued to convene and collaborate despite such severe external limitations.

This has also inspired EDRi’s collaborative approach to fighting the EU’s deregulation agenda, whereby in early 2025 we joined the steering group of the ‘rules to protect’ coalition, originally co-led by environmental justice and corporate accountability organisations and unions, in order to situate digital deregulation within broader socio-economic and political structures. This was an extremely positive yet unexpected outcome from the work, and something that we continue to build on.

While a rich palette of actions, this is still just the beginning of EDRi’s efforts to situate our digital rights work within Global structures of human, nature and climate extractivism. Moving forward, we remain committed to integrate reflections at the intersection between digital and environmental justice in our perspectives, as we work towards a European tech agenda which truly puts people, planet and democracy at its heart.

This blog constitutes part of EDRi’s final report to the Green Screen Coalition, who have provided funding which has enabled our capacity-building around digital rights and environmental justice. More information about EDRi’s funding is available on our website and in our annual reports.