Scholars and campaigners across the Global Majority have long documented how the world's insatiable appetite for technology wreaks havoc on ecosystems and the climate. EDRi's latest initiative represents part of a broader push to mobilise collective responses to this interconnected crisis.
The damage spans the entire technology lifecycle. Mining rare minerals for artificial intelligence chips destroys habitats and displaces indigenous communities. Data centres consume staggering volumes of water and electricity. Electronic waste piles up as manufacturers design products for obsolescence. Behind all this sits technosolutionism—the ideology promoted by tech billionaires, venture capitalists and politicians—which obscures technology's role in accelerating the climate catastrophe.
During 2024, EDRi recognised a critical gap: defending digital rights in Europe means little if the continent ignores how its tech industry harms communities elsewhere. The organisation identified opportunities to bridge the digital rights and climate justice movements, acknowledging that Global Majority countries bear disproportionate costs of European tech production and consumption.
Strategic and collaborative EU advocacy interventions
Backed by the Green Screen Coalition's funding from 1 January 2024 to 30 September 2025, EDRi established a dedicated working stream. A new cross-sector group emerged, combining digital rights practitioners from within and beyond EDRi's network with organisations focused on environmental and climate issues. The partnership aims to build capacity through shared learning, recognising that combined efforts yield results greater than isolated work. Eleven digital rights groups and ten environmental or climate organisations have participated. The distinction between these categories has become blurred—many digital rights groups already integrate environmental concerns, and vice versa—yet the group's explicit focus on climate-digital justice intersections fills a genuine strategic need.
A pivotal moment came in March and April 2025 when the group convened for an intensive two-day workshop on narrative and strategy. The insights generated have shaped subsequent activities. EDRi published a landing page presenting the collective vision as a living resource for continued collaboration.
The group's influence rippled through EDRi's own structures. In May 2025, the network adopted a five-year strategy that explicitly commits to "work[ing] towards environmental and climate justice," grounded in reflection on Europe's global position and responsibilities. This signals how tech policy thinking is absorbing environmental concerns into its core agenda, fostering conversations that will inform better policymaking.
The Tech & Society Summit in October 2024, organised by over forty civil society groups including EDRi, became another milestone. Activities ranged from a repair clinic to panel discussions on technology's environmental footprint to an environmental justice quiz. The Summit centred protection of people, planet and democracy. Participants' collective demands fed into a shared manifesto, co-signed by four environmental organisations, which EDRi used to brief newly elected European Parliament members on why climate and environment matter to civil society across Europe and globally.
Environmental justice has also become woven into Privacy Camp, EDRi's flagship annual conference. The January 2024 edition featured critical examination of data centre impacts and deconstruction of the EU's narrative about a "twin" digital and climate transition. The September 2025 edition continues this emphasis, including a co-creation session to produce key communications materials from the working group.
EDRi has also hosted sessions at external forums. At Computer Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) 2025, the organisation convened working group members to explore technology's holistic impact on environmental justice. Participants from academia and civil society, many with technical expertise, engaged enthusiastically with this framing. A meetup at RightsCon 2025 drew civil society representatives from worldwide, who welcomed the space to discuss the topic and embrace the integrated perspective.
Challenges and unexpected outcomes in our work
Progress has encountered significant obstacles. Although the Tech & Society Summit attracted decision-makers from the Green party and other climate-conscious factions, pro-industry lawmakers view the agenda negatively, complicating outreach. The wider political environment—dominated by innovation-at-all-costs thinking and technosolutionism, with civil society facing suppression, intimidation and budget cuts—has grown increasingly hostile to all advocacy work.
Environmental organisations have become prime targets of far-right violence. This has stretched the movement's collaborative capacity as resources shift to existential defence. The EU's deregulation push, dismantling protections for people and nature, has placed the Green Deal, climate targets and nature restoration under sustained attack.
Digital rights groups have also faced mounting pressure from expanding digital dossiers. Some organisations recognised the importance of bridging digital and environmental justice but lacked resources to pursue this alongside other priorities.
These obstacles underscore the necessity for deeper collaboration, not retreat. EDRi has been pleasantly surprised that working group members have sustained engagement despite severe external constraints. This persistence has catalysed an unexpected development: in early 2025, EDRi joined the steering group of the 'rules to protect' coalition, originally led by environmental justice, corporate accountability and union organisations. This move situates digital deregulation within broader socio-economic and political systems—a positive outcome that continues to evolve.
While these actions represent substantial progress, EDRi views them as an opening phase in embedding digital rights work within global structures of human, nature and climate extractivism. The organisation remains committed to integrating digital and environmental justice perspectives as it pursues a European tech agenda centred on people, planet and democracy.
This account forms part of EDRi's final report to the Green Screen Coalition, whose funding enabled this capacity-building initiative. Further details on EDRi's funding appear on its website and in annual reports.
