SB64: Talks can turn Just Transition promises into real shared prosperity – CAN – EnviroNews

– Advertisement –

As governments gather in Bonn for the SB64 UN climate talks – 64th sessions of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) – to negotiate how recent commitments will be implemented, the Climate Action Network (CAN) has urged governments to recognise the context in which these talks take place.

The genocide in Gaza, the illegal aggression against Iran and Lebanon, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the blockade against Cuba, the conflict in Sudan and  and elsewhere in the world, are said to have caused immense suffering and destruction.

“The increasingly devastating and frequent climate impacts compound this suffering. What the world needs now is certainty that governments will cooperate to address these harms,” said the group. 

CAN, a global network of more than 2,500 civil society organisations, has identified three key areas of priority for the Bonn talks that would go a long way to respond to the cries of people experiencing this climate devastation.

“We must to use this moment to bed down the urgent need to implement just transitions to a better and safer word; to deliver the protections that are required against climate impacts through funding adaptation at the scale necessary, and we have to ensure that we implement the agreement governments made to transition away from fossil fuels, the main driver of the climate crisis.”

Building on the historic breakthrough on Just Transition at COP30 in Brazil last year, CAN is calling for clear progress on the operationalisation of a functioning Just Transition Mechanism capable of mobilising public-based finance, supporting national and local transition plans, and ensuring affected communities have a real role in shaping the transition towards a safe, sustainable and prosperous future.

It is in this context that CAN calls on governments to include three core elements in the draft decision text on Just Transition that will make a difference in the ability of the Belém-Antalya Mechanism (BAM), as civil society refers to it, to deliver real impact on the gound:

• Ensuring the BAM is grounded in the COP30 Just Transition principles and linked to real-world implementation;
• the capacity of the BAM to mobilise practical support for national and local Just Transition plans, including unlocking public finance and technical assistance; and
• formal decision-making roles for workers, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and other rightsholders within the Just Transition Mechanism’s governance structures.

Anabella Rosenberg, Senior Advisor on Just Transition at Climate Action Network International, said: “We need climate action that working people can actually believe in and benefit from. At COP30, governments finally acknowledged what trade unions, Indigenous Peoples, social movements, and frontline communities have been demanding for years: climate action will not succeed if it deepens inequality or leaves workers and communities to absorb the costs alone. Now the fight moves to Bonn where governments need to show that they are serious about lives and livelihoods – and that means delivering a mechanism that puts resources to support people at the heart of the transition, not just in the footnotes.”

According to CAN, if governments move decisively, the Just Transition Mechanism could become one of the most significant developments in the UN climate process since the Paris Agreement – helping ensure that the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, the fight against climate impacts, the need to ensure food security and healthy and viable ecosystems, delivers tangible improvements in people’s daily lives, especially for those least responsible for climate impacts and most exposed to their consequences.

If they do not, adds the group, the post-Paris delivery phase of the climate process risks becoming another cycle of political promises disconnected from ordinary people.

“What is missing is not action from people. What is missing is the political backing, public investment, accessible finance, and institutions capable of supporting change at the scale this crisis demands. Just Transition is already happening in communities around the world; rural workers creating solidarity funds to protect livelihoods; Indigenous Peoples demanding real consultation over energy projects affecting their lands; trade unions pushing for a transition that looks at public services and wider economic transformation to ensure communities can thrive through change, not simply survive it,” Rosemberg continued.

An equally important issue at the June climate talks will be Adaptation – the support countries and communities need to protect people from worsening climate impacts such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, food insecurity, and displacement. While COP30 agreed a goal to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035, current levels of support remain far below what developing countries need. Developed country negotiators in Bonn must begin putting forward a credible plan for delivering public, grant-based finance at the scale vulnerable countries and communities actually require.

Pooja Dave, Adaptation Policy coordinator at Climate Action Network International, said: “Adaptation is about people’s rights and justice. The communities facing the harshest climate impacts, despite contributing the least to the crisis, must have access to the finance and support needed to survive, rebuild lives and live with dignity. They must also have a real role in shaping the decisions affecting their futures. Adaptation is no longer a side issue in the climate talks. Floods, droughts, heatwaves, hunger, and displacement are already destroying lives, homes, livelihoods, and entire communities. The Global Goal on Adaptation cannot just be a political promise on paper. It must urgently deliver real protection for the people living on the frontlines of the climate crisis.”

Fossil fossil extraction will also be discussed at the Bonn climate talks. For workers, Indigenous Peoples, and communities on the frontlines of fossil fuel extraction and climate change, the transition away from fossil fuels is not an abstract policy debate. It is about jobs, health, energy, and economic survival. At SB64, governments must show how commitments become action – through public finance, international cooperation, and people-centred national transition plans that leave no worker or community behind.

Advertisement

Janet Milongo, Energy Policy coordinator at Climate Action Network International, said: “The transition away from fossil fuels is now past the point of no return. The question facing governments in Bonn is whether they are prepared to build a transition that is fair, financed, democratic, and capable of improving people’s lives – or whether implementation remains trapped at the level of political rhetoric.”

CAN says it will engage in the Bonn talks on the necessity to transition away from fossil fuels (the TAFF) to ensure that the issues of equity and responsibility are fundamentally addressed, making finance the critical issue. 

It describes SB64 as a test of whether years of climate agreements finally add up. “Bonn sets the stage for concrete COP31 outcomes that people can feel in their daily lives,” submitted the group.