“We need a globally just transition” – Dr. Amiera Sawas on Climate Colonialism and Global Justice

Episode 3: “We need a globally just transition” — Dr. Amiera Sawas on Climate Colonialism and Global Justice

In this episode of Burned: The Price of Oil, host Shady Khalil speaks with Dr. Amiera Sawas, Head of Research and Policy at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Amiera draws on her decades of experience working at the intersection of climate change, gender justice, and decolonial movements to expose the structural injustices fueling the climate crisis, and the feminist, global majority-led solutions forging the path ahead.

From her personal journey navigating racism, class, and colonial legacy in the UK to helping reshape global climate diplomacy, Amiera breaks down how fossil fuels are bound to systems of patriarchy, extractivism, and global debt. She discusses why just transition efforts must go beyond technical solutions to confront the root causes of climate and economic injustice and how feminist leadership, indigenous knowledge, and global cooperation are essential to building a just future.

Together, Shady and Amiera explore the potential of the Fossil Fuel Treaty, the links between petromasculinity and authoritarianism, and how upcoming global moments, like Colombia’s 2026 diplomatic conference, could change the landscape of climate justice.

About Dr. Amiera Sawas:
Dr. Amiera Sawas is a feminist researcher and advocate who works at the intersections of climate change, gender justice, public participation and the social contract. Amiera has almost 20 years experience working on these issues across academia, the private sector, think tanks and NGOs. As a person of both Syrian and Irish heritage, with close links to Pakistan, she has lived life with an acute awareness of the impacts of colonial histories and believes passionately in the need to decolonize.

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