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Paper short abstract

Using empirical evidence from the Nile Basin, this paper reframes the GERD as climate infrastructure that redistributes vulnerability rather than resilience, challenging dominant adaptation narratives in African climate governance.

Paper long abstract

Climate justice debates in Africa often remain confined to discussions of adaptation and resilience, obscuring the deeper structural inequities embedded in climate governance. Drawing on empirical findings from forty-eight stakeholder interviews and field data across the Nile Basin, this paper reframes the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as a contested climate justice project rather than a purely technical or security issue. Field data reveal two interlinked dynamics: first, the persistent exclusion of downstream and local actors from meaningful decision-making processes, constituting a procedural justice deficit; and second, the uneven distribution of climate risks and developmental benefits associated with large-scale hydropower infrastructure. The findings demonstrate that while Ethiopia articulates GERD as an assertion of African agency, energy sovereignty, and climate adaptation, its unilateral governance structure reproduces systemic inequalities that undermine distributive and intergenerational justice across the basin. Communities most vulnerable to climate variability, particularly agrarian and riparian populations, remain marginal to governance frameworks intended to secure climate resilience and development. This disjuncture highlights the limitations of adaptation-centered approaches, which fail to address power asymmetries in transboundary water politics. By situating the GERD within broader struggles over sovereignty, historical marginalization, and ecological futures, the paper advances a climate justice lens grounded in African realities. It argues that transformative, planetary futures in Africa require climate governance models that center procedural inclusion, reparative cooperation, and regionally embedded knowledge systems. In doing so, the study provides empirical insights into how African-led infrastructure can either perpetuate injustice or serve as a catalyst for systemic socio-ecological transformation.