- A new ActionAid report found that less than 3% (2.8%) of climate finance supports ‘just transition’ approaches that prioritize workers, women, and communities in tackling the climate crisis.
- The organization says this worryingly low amount demonstrates how communities at the forefront of the climate emergency are being let down and their needs are being ignored, leading to harmful practices.
- Ahead of COP30 in Brazil, the organization is joining forces with others to demand that concrete action be taken to agree on a coordinated global just transition.
ActionAid has highlighted the shockingly low levels of funding dedicated to ensuring the transition to a greener future supports and prioritizes workers, women, and communities.
Newly released ahead of COP30, the report, Climate Finance for Just Transition: How the Finance Flows, analyzed data from the two major global climate funds – the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Investment Funds – to reveal that disappointingly less than 3% (2.8%) of climate finance is supporting just transition approaches. The data also revealed that only one in 50 projects (1.96%) is adequately listening to and supporting people through a just transition, and only one US dollar in every 35 is spent on supporting a just transition.
ActionAid emphasizes the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels and industrial agriculture towards renewables and agroecology, but this shift must be implemented in a manner that safeguards people’s jobs and rights, while also making food and energy more affordable. Just transition approaches often involve communities in local planning processes, provide support and training for new jobs and thriving greener economies, and offer income support to help bridge the gaps when climate-destructive industries close down.
Arthur Larok, Secretary General of ActionAid International, said:
“The world urgently needs action to prevent climate breakdown, but it should be the polluters, not the workers and communities, who pay the price.
Our new report shows that just transition approaches are jaw-droppingly underfunded, and people’s needs are at the bottom of the priority list. Something’s got to give. If just transition continues to be overlooked, then there’s a real risk that inequalities will deepen.”
Teresa Anderson, report author and Global Lead on Climate Justice, said:
“No one should have to choose between a secure job and a safe planet. Just transition approaches make sure that climate action prioritizes people’s daily needs, and doesn’t accidentally push people deeper into poverty. Without just transition approaches, climate action risks unintended harm, backlash, and ever-more delay.”
The report highlights stories of harm by industrial agriculture companies and fossil fuel giants in communities ActionAid works with in the Global South, identifying stories of strength as people and workers fight back against climate destruction and deforestation, as well as key sectors that must play a role in a greener future but are not protecting workers and communities.
For generations, a community living near Timbiras in Maranhão, part of the legal Amazon region in Brazil, has made a living from babassu coconuts, a type of palm that grows naturally in the forest and produces oil and fibers widely used in food, industry, and cosmetics.
As deforestation advances, the community faces growing pressure from farmers, businessmen, and politicians to leave their forest territory to make way for expanding industrial agriculture.
A babassu coconut breaker from the area who has requested not to be identified:
“They want to push us out to grow corn, soya, or cattle. They just want to grab this land.”
The community has faced intimidation methods to leave the land. For three years, planes and drones have been spraying the community with pesticides. This has led to community members experiencing headaches, nausea, stomach pains, dizziness, and rashes. Although pesticide attacks have been banned, enforcement of the ban is inadequate, and deforestation persists.
Jessica Siviero, Climate Justice Specialist at ActionAid Brazil, adds:
“The Amazon forest acts as the lungs of planet earth, while the Cerrado serves as its veins, carrying life and connecting vital ecosystems. COP30 coming to Belém puts the spotlight on industrial agriculture’s role in driving Amazon and Cerrado destruction. It’s time for the world to move away from harmful industrial agriculture, and towards agroecological approaches that feed people and cool the planet. Just transition approaches need to be applied to agriculture as well.”
With one week to go until COP30 begins in Belém, Brazil, ActionAid is calling for a commitment to coordinate a just transition globally. Specifically, along with allies, it’s demanding a “Belém Action Mechanism” on just transition to be set up to ensure coordination, shared learning, and to support implementation.
Teresa also said:
“This is a critical opportunity for global climate action to evolve for the better. COP30 needs to deliver on a global plan for just transition to support and reassure those on the frontlines, and to unleash the action our planet so urgently needs.”
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About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 countries, including some of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty, including by shifting power to local organizations and movements.
