Anotida Chijena in Kwenda Primary School’s garden in Zimbabwe.
By Marcus Campbell
In the race to transition away from fossil fuels, the world has begun mining its way into a new set of crises.
The shift to green energy comes with a hidden cost.
Critical minerals like lithium, cobalt and nickel are essential to solar panels, wind turbines and battery technology.
But much of the mining takes place in the global South, where communities are already vulnerable to poverty and exploitation.
Across Africa and Asia, people are being displaced, land degraded and labour exploited, often without the benefits of clean energy ever reaching them.
In Zimbabwe, the lithium industry has been touted as a game changer for the economy.
But it’s also brought human rights abuses, corruption and environmental destruction, with profits failing to address entrenched poverty.
Closer to home, nickel mining in parts of Indonesia has poisoned water supplies, devastated coral reefs and disrupted coastal ecosystems.
This is the uncomfortable tension many of us in the climate movement face: the drive to protect our common home risks repeating the extractive, unjust systems that created the crisis in the first place.
So how can we respond ethically, as people of faith?
While we continue to demand accountability for the impacts of unethical mining, there are also ways to take direct action to help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, sustainably and justly.
At UnitingWorld, we believe real climate justice begins with local leadership and solutions.
And right now, we’re seeing powerful examples in Zimbabwe, where our church partners are addressing the twin crises of poverty and climate instability in ways that are sustainable, inclusive and community-led.
In Zimbabwe’s Chikomba District, families are living through increasingly harsh dry seasons, erratic rainfall and rising food prices.
Without access to clean water, girls walk long distances to fetch it, missing school or dropping out entirely.
Parents skip meals to feed their children, and opportunities for income are scarce.
But in the midst of these challenges, something extraordinary is taking root.
Kwenda Primary School students weeding in their garden.
In partnership with the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe and their development agency MeDRA, UnitingWorld is supporting a program that transforms schools into hubs of community resilience.
The idea is simple and powerful: use schools not just as places of learning, but as centres where clean water, nutritious food and climate training can reach entire communities.
Solar-powered boreholes now provide clean water, not only for students, but for surrounding families who once walked hours each day.
School gardens are growing vegetables to feed hungry children and teach farming techniques.
Teachers are trained in climate-smart agriculture and passing on practical knowledge for life.
Thirteen-year-old Tanaka is one of the students already benefiting.
She was out of school for two years because her family couldn’t afford the fees.
When she finally returned, hunger made it hard to concentrate.
Now, with water and a thriving school garden, she’s growing vegetables, learning new skills and sharing what she learns with her mother at home.
“If we can always get water at school, I can help in the garden,” she told us.
“We’ll grow vegetables for lunch and learn how to do it at home too.”
This work isn’t just helping students stay in school and eat well. It’s restoring dignity, creating livelihoods, and equipping families to face a changing climate with confidence.
This is what ethical climate action looks like: local people leading solutions, supported by generous communities with a passion to see justice on earth as it is in heaven.
It’s not about technology for its own sake. It’s about restoring balance, between people and planet, justice and sustainability, faith and action.
We believe this is the kind of transformation we in the Uniting Church in Australia are called to be part of: grounded in love, guided by truth and humility, and lived out through deep relationships.
And it’s a vision we can realise and help resource together.
Right now, we’re working to scale the program across seven schools and their surrounding communities, reaching thousands with clean water, nutritious food and the tools to thrive in a changing climate. Can you help?
Let’s invest not just in solar panels, but in human dignity. Let’s act not only to reduce emissions, but to lift up those most impacted by the crisis.
Because a different world is possible, and with faith, we can help bring it to life.
Find out more here and donate before June 30.
Marcus Campbell is UnitingWorld’s Communications and Content Manager
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