Coal Kills: How Young Ghanaians Stopped a Power Plant and Built a Movement with Portia Adu-Mensah

What does it take to stop a coal plant from being built in your community — when you're young, when the government is pushing it, and when the promises of jobs and opportunity are pulling people the other way?For Portia, the answer was relationships, strategy, and an unshakeable belief that there is always an alternative.A grassroots climate advocate, royal native of Asuom in Ghana's Eastern Region, founder of Dreamhunt, and member of 350 Ghana, Portia has spent over a decade working at the intersection of climate justice, renewable energy, and community empowerment. In this conversation with Sara, she shares the story of the Coal Kills campaign — how a group of young people took on the fossil fuel industry, engaged ten chiefs in their local dialects, used the media as their most powerful tool, and won.But this episode goes far beyond one campaign. Portia talks about what it really means to work with communities — not for them. About why climate finance is failing the Global South. About the women in the Savannah region living without electricity in the 21st century. About why, for an African, just energy transition is not just energy — it's food, shelter, and clothing.And about hope. Not the abstract kind, but the kind you build by showing up with solar panels and staying long enough to see the light come on.In this episode:The Coal Kills campaign: how young Ghanaians stopped a coal plant through community organising, media strategy, and nonviolent advocacyWhy greenwashing and broken promises made community engagement the hardest part of the fightWhat the Global South really needs from climate finance — and why loans are not the answerThe Women in Renewable Energy project and what it means to bring real-time solutions to communities without electricityDreamhunt: raising young environmental advocates through tree planting, recycling, school gardens, and climate-smart agricultureWhat indigenous and royal identity means for grassroots advocacy — and why you never enter a community without meeting the chief firstWhy putting people before profits is not a slogan but a survival strategy"Just energy transition to an African is not just energy — it's food, shelter, and clothing"About Portia:Portia is a climate justice advocate, founder of Dreamhunt, and member of 350 Ghana. A royal native of Asuom in Ghana's Eastern Region, she works at the intersection of renewable energy, community empowerment, and climate finance advocacy. With a background in banking and finance, she brings both grassroots experience and policy-level understanding to the fight for a just and sustainable future.Available on: ⁠Spotify⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠www.weneedtoact.org ⁠