SEEN works in partnership with citizens groups nationally and globally on environment, human rights and development issues with a particular focus on energy, climate change, environmental justice, gender equity, and economic issues, particularly as these play out in North/South relations. SEEN's work focuses primarily on fossil fuels, and on sustainable alternatives to them. For more information on fossil fuels and alternatives, see our energy page.

The reliance of rich countries on fossil fuels fosters a climate of insecurity, and a rationale for large military budgets in the North. In the South, it often fosters or nurtures autocratic or dictatorial regimes and corruption, while exacerbating poverty and destroying subsistence cultures and sustainable livelihoods. For more informaiton on human rights and fossil fuels, see our human rights page.

In many cases, multinational corporations involved in fossil fuel extraction and consumption, headquartered in the North, profit from this vicious cycle. Subsidies come in many forms, but our research has focused mostly on the public funds derived from international financial institutions and export credit agencies for energy corporations. For more information, see our corporate subsidies page.

A continued rapid consumption of fossil fuels also ensures catastrophic environmental consequences: Climate change is a serious, emerging threat to the stability of the planet's ecosystems, and a particular hazard to the world's poorest people. The threat of climate change also brings more urgency to the need to reorient energy-related investments, using them to provide abundant, clean, safe energy for human needs and sustainable livelihoods. For more information, see our climate change page.

SEEN views energy not as an issue that can be examined in isolation, but rather as a vital resource embedded in a development strategy that must simultaneously address other fundamentals, such as education, health care, public participation in decision-making, and economic opportunities for the poorest. And toward that goal, SEEN is working to steer the financial investments of wealthy countries away from support for fossil fuels and toward more socially responsible and environmentally friendly alternatives, while ensuring that the fundamental building blocks of human development are not stripped away. For more on our work on IFIs, please visit our IFI page.