The impact of digital technologies on the climate crisis and the challenges of a just ecological transition will be at the centre of the third main panel of the Maputo Fast Forward Festival (MFF), entitled “Ecological Mirror: Reflecting on Habitable Digital Futures”, scheduled for the late afternoon of 29 October at JFS Tower, in downtown Maputo.

The session will build on the discussion of the “Political Mirror”, held the previous day, inviting reflection on the relationship between technology, natural resource exploitation, governance and sustainability, with particular attention to the challenges faced by countries in the Global South.

Among the participants is Fadhel Kaboub, a Tunisian economist and president of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, whose research focuses on climate finance, a just transition and economic sovereignty. The panel will also feature João Camargo, a Portuguese climate activist with the Climáximo movement and author of Manual de Luta Contra as Alterações Climáticas (Handbook for the Fight Against Climate Change), who questions the environmental costs of current technological development models.

In an article published in Expresso, Camargo warns of the “catastrophic” scale of investment in artificial intelligence. “Language models will not bring an end to humanity, nor will they replace essential tasks in society and eliminate useless work. In fact, they are creating precarious, poorly paid and hidden jobs, among other things,” he wrote.

The Mozambican perspective will be represented by Fátima Mimbire, an activist and journalist focused on public resource oversight, and Isildo Nhantumbo, an academic and environmental researcher.

The discussion will be moderated by Erika Mendes of Justiça Ambiental, an organisation working in the areas of corporate accountability and human rights.

Part of the ninth edition of the MFF, which takes place in Maputo from 23 October to 1 November, the discussion seeks to question whether digital innovation genuinely contributes to sustainable futures or reproduces exploitative models that intensify the climate crisis and shift its costs onto the most vulnerable communities.

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