As the world grapples with accelerating climate crises, the imperative to transition to clean energy has emerged as a central pillar of environmental governance. Developing countries, often portrayed as both victims and contributors to ecological degradation, are increasingly under pressure to adopt green energy agendas. However, beneath the surface of solar panels, wind turbines, and bioenergy plantations lies a deeper political and ethical challenge. Whose voices are included in the transition? Who benefits, and who is displaced? These questions become critical when analyzed through the lens of ecofeminism, a framework that links environmental degradation with systems of gendered and colonial oppression.

This paper explores how developing countries are formulating ecological policies and constructing clean energy transitions under global green politics. By applying an ecofeminist perspective, it interrogates how gendered power relations intersect with environmental policies and how women—particularly those in rural and indigenous communities—are positioned in the new green order. Through empirical cases and theoretical grounding, this analysis seeks to unearth the invisible costs of clean energy transitions and propose a more just and inclusive ecological future.

Ecofeminism: Theory, Resistance, and Ethical Ecology

Ecofeminism is rooted in the idea that the domination of nature and the subjugation of women stem from the same patriarchal and capitalist systems. Key figures such as Vandana Shiva and Carolyn Merchant have argued that ecological destruction is intrinsically linked to gender inequality (Shiva, 1989; Merchant, 1980). For Shiva, Western models of development represent a masculinist logic of control and exploitation over both nature and the feminine. In contrast, traditional, indigenous, and subsistence ways of life—often led by women—foster a holistic and regenerative relationship with the environment.

Carolyn Merchant’s historical account in “The Death of Nature” (1980) demonstrates how the Scientific Revolution introduced a mechanistic worldview, displacing organic and reciprocal understandings of the earth. Women, who were previously associated with nurturing and healing roles, were sidelined in the rise of technocratic authority. Ecofeminism thus calls for a revalorization of relational, embodied, and situated knowledges—many of which have been preserved by women in marginalized communities.

Green Politics in the Global South: Ambitions and Contradictions

Developing countries face a complex dilemma: on the one hand, they must meet development needs and reduce poverty; on the other, they are under mounting pressure from international donors, climate agreements, and investors to decarbonize their economies. This has led to a surge in clean energy initiatives, ranging from hydropower and solar farms to large-scale biofuels and geothermal projects.

While green politics appear progressive on the surface, critics argue that such projects often replicate colonial patterns of extraction and displacement. The term “green grabbing” has emerged to describe how land and resources are appropriated under the guise of sustainability (Fairhead et al., 2012). In many cases, women farmers and forest dwellers are evicted or lose access to communal lands in order to make way for green energy zones. These outcomes reflect what Bina Agarwal (1992) called the gendered effects of resource control—where women’s historical ties to land and ecological knowledge are severed by state-led development.

Case Study: Indonesia’s Green Energy Dilemma

Indonesia, one of the largest emitters in Southeast Asia, has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2060. Major policies include the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), hydropower expansion in Papua, and geothermal projects in Java and Sumatra. However, these policies often ignore the gendered and ecological consequences of rapid green development.

For example, the construction of the Sidrap Wind Farm in South Sulawesi displaced several farming families without proper compensation, disproportionately affecting women who managed household food security. In the Kendeng Mountains of Central Java, female farmers known as the Sedulur Sikep have resisted limestone mining and energy projects threatening their water sources. Their resistance, rooted in local cosmology and ecofeminist praxis, embodies the struggle against both patriarchal development and environmental destruction (Jurnal Perempuan, 2020).

Women, Local Knowledge, and Ecofeminist Resistance

Across the Global South, women are not merely victims of green transitions—they are also agents of ecological defense. In India, the Chipko movement of the 1970s, where women hugged trees to prevent deforestation, laid the foundation for ecofeminist resistance (Shiva, 1989). Under Wangari Maathai, the Green Belt Movement organized women in Kenya to advocate for land rights and plant millions of trees. These movements make clear that social justice cannot be separated from ecological sustainability.

Rural women in Brazil have objected to monoculture farms and agrotoxins pushed under biofuel plans. Concerns about food sovereignty, health, and biodiversity—questions sometimes overlooked in top-down energy policies—drive these demonstrations. Such movements stress the need for participatory government, bottom-up planning, and the acceptance of women’s traditional ecological knowledge (TEK).

The Green Transition and the Risk of Greenwashing

Many multinational companies and governments engage in greenwashing, so they endorse environmental credentials while still supporting exploitative policies. Large-scale palm oil biodiesel projects in Malaysia and Indonesia, for instance, have been labeled as sustainable even though they cause land grabs and deforestation (Greenpeace, 201). Likewise, in order to “preserve” forests for worldwide carbon markets, carbon offset programs can replace indigenous populations—many of which are women. This greenwashing trend draws attention to a crucial weakness in present ecological transitions: the preference for market-based solutions above institutional change. Any sustainable future, according to ecofeminist academics, has to face the fundamental power relations controlling who defines sustainability, who manages natural resources, and who gains from green growth (Gaard, 2011).

Toward an Ecofeminist Energy Policy

Ecofeminist policy frameworks call for more than just technical shifts in energy sources. They demand a rethinking of development models, decision-making processes, and values. Key principles include

• Decentralization: Empowering local communities, especially women, to manage energy and ecological resources.
• Participatory planning: Ensuring meaningful inclusion of women in climate policy and project design.
• Care ethics: Valuing caregiving labor, interdependence, and ecological reciprocity.
• Intersectionality: Recognizing how gender, race, class, and geography shape environmental vulnerabilities and responsibilities.

Examples of such approaches can be found in Bolivia’s Buen Vivir policy, which integrates indigenous values and communal land management. In Nepal, community forestry schemes led by women have improved biodiversity while enhancing gender equity (Agarwal, 2001).

Reimagining Green Futures

As developing countries navigate the path toward clean energy, the ecofeminist lens offers a powerful critique and an alternative vision. It reveals how green transitions, when driven by patriarchal, technocratic, or market logics, can perpetuate exclusion and injustice. At the same time, it illuminates the role of women as ecological stewards, knowledge holders, and frontline defenders of sustainability.

To truly build a green future, energy policies must move beyond emissions targets and megaprojects. They must engage with the everyday realities of marginalized communities, center feminist ethics of care, and honor the reciprocal relationship between humans and nature. Ecofeminism does not oppose technology or progress—it simply insists that they serve life, not profit.