Welcome to the personal webpage of Dr Alex Lenferna. Alex has dedicated over sixteen years to studying, researching, writing, teaching, and activism on environmental and social justice issues, with a strong focus on energy and climate change. This page aims to share some of his work and research to ensure it is easily accessible.

A Little Bit About Alex’s Work:

In November 2025, Alex started as the South Africa team lead of Research + Action (R+A). R+A is a small non-profit organisation that provides those working for climate justice with data, research and investigative infrastructure, advice and support to outmaneuver fossil fuel propaganda and disinformation, and to spot trends and opportunities to win the change we seek. In his role as South Africa team lead, Alex will help start and build a small team that will work together to support South African climate justice movements and partners.

Prior to his current position, Alex served as the elected general secretary and co-founder of the Climate Justice Coalition – a South African coalition of over 70 civil society, grassroots, trade union and community-based organisations working together to advance a transformative climate justice agenda. He also co-hosted Just Us and the Climate, a coalition podcast which aims to bring climate change back down to earth to show how it’s not only a crisis, but also an opportunity to build a better, more just world. 

Alex is also a Research Associate at the Fort Hare Institute for Social and Economic Research. Alex’s academic work takes a highly interdisciplinary, scholar-activist approach to environmental and social justice issues. He is currently working on two books project entitled: Radical – Getting to the Heart of the Climate Crisis; and, Overthrowing Eco-Apartheid – And Winning a World Worth Fighting For.

Previously, in 2024, Alex completed a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship at Nelson Mandela University, hosted by the NRF SARChI Chair in Identities and Social Cohesion in Africa – on a National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Fellowship. He also holds a PhD in philosophy focused on climate and energy justice from the University of Washington.

Alex has been a Mandela Rhodes, Fulbright, and Endeavour Scholar, through which he has worked, taught, and studied in South Africa, the United States, and Australia. He has published dozens of academic publications, briefings, and reports, and over one hundred opinion & analysis pieces in outlets such as the Mail & Guardian, the Sowetan, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, Jacobin, the Seattle Times, and the Conversation. His research and writing is freely available on Academia.edu here.

Alex is a first generation South African, who grew up in Johannesburg, and whose family hails from Mauritius. He is currently based in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. He speaks English; intermediate French, Spanish and Afrikaans; basic isiZulu; and is currently learning isiXhosa. If you want to learn more about Alex and his work, you can also read his more in-depth online bio. If you’re interested in connecting, you can contact Alex at: alexlenferna [at] gmail dot com, or connect on LinkedIn or Facebook, which he occasionally uses to share content on social, environmental, and climate justice.