As global climate negotiations at COP30 focus on phasing out fossil fuels, the Congolese citizen movement Notre Terre Sans Pétrole (NTSP) has launched a policy brief outlining how the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) can achieve a genuinely just energy transition.

The brief was unveiled during the side event in Belém “Solutions Country: Protecting Forests and Securing a Just Transition in the DRC through Community and Indigenous-Led Approaches,” organised by NTSP, CORAP, Earth Insight, and RFUK. It challenges the prevailing “solutions country” narrative and calls for an approach rooted in environmental justice, centered on three principles:

• Distribution– fair access to ecosystem services and revenue sharing
• Participation– meaningful inclusion of communities in decisions affecting their lands
• Recognition– respect for local knowledge, rights, and traditions

Drawing on five case studies - from strategic minerals to hydropower and oil exploitation - the paper warns that current policies risk perpetuating patterns of exclusion and dispossession evident in the management of natural resources in the country. Key recommendations include securing community land rights, enforcing free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), decentralising environmental governance, and ending harmful oil and logging projects.

“True just transition will only happen when the DRC becomes a solution not just for the world, but for and with its own people,” said Emmanuel Musuyu, Executive Secretary of CORAP.

The brief echoes nationwide calls for an oil-free DRC, halting new oil and gas projects, and withdrawing the tender for 52 oil blocks. NTSP coordinator Pascal Mirindi stressed that fossil fuel expansion undermines climate and biodiversity goals, citing decades of oil-related degradation in Muanda in the far southwest of the country as a warning.

As the DRC seeks to align climate ambitions with realities on the ground, this initiative underscores the need for pathways that protect forests, uphold community rights, and deliver social justice.