In this episode of Burned: The Price of Oil, host Shady Khalil speaks with Dipti Bhatnagar, climate justice organizer with Justiça Ambiental (Friends of the Earth Mozambique) and Executive Committee member of Friends of the Earth International. Dipti shares her 25-year journey organizing across India, the U.S., and Mozambique, connecting struggles from anti-dam movements to anti-colonial resistance, rooted in a vision of collective care, dignity, and justice.

Together, they expose the reality of the TotalEnergies LNG megaproject in northern Mozambique, a carbon bomb linked to militarization and human rights abuses. Dipti outlines how fossil fuel corporations use debt traps, legal threats, and state violence to entrench their power in Global South countries, all while claiming to “develop” them.

This episode goes beyond the fossil fuel industry, into empire, patriarchy, global governance, and the colonial legacy of the so-called “green transition.” From Cabo Delgado to the UN climate talks, Dipti and Shady break down why fossil fuel companies can’t be trusted with the future, and how women, youth, and communities continue to organize for the world we deserve.

Host: Shady Khalil, Oil Change International
Guest: Dipti Bhatnagar, Justiça Ambiental/Friends of the Earth Mozambique

About Dipti Bhatnagar:
Dipti is an activist, systems thinker and movement builder with an innate sense of justice, and is rooted in three continents with more than two decades of experience fighting corporate power, fossil fuel colonialism, and unjust global governance. She lives in Maputo, Mozambique with her partner who she met while campaigning against dams, and her work spans grassroots organizing, international advocacy, and visionary movement building rooted in dignity, care, and resistance.

Links:

• Oil Change International
• Follow @PriceofOil on X and Instagram
• Learn more about Justiça Ambiental/Friends of the Earth Mozambique @JA4change on X and Instagram
• Follow Dipti’s work via Friends of the Earth International and Justiça Ambiental

• (00:00) - Introduction to Environmental Justice and Activism
• (03:12) - Personal Journey into Activism
• (06:07) - The Mozambique Gas Project and Its Impacts
• (09:00) - Colonial Dynamics and Resource Exploitation
• (12:02) - Community Resistance and Local Governance
• (15:04) - The Role of Women and Youth in Activism
• (17:58) - Reimagining Democracy and Governance
• (21:12) - Global Governance Systems and Their Failures
• (23:58) - Corporate Power and the Fossil Fuel Industry
• (27:06) - Hope and Collective Action for Change