Barely any climate finance is going to support workers and communities to undertake just transitions.
It is time for climate policy makers to make sure that people’s priorities are front and centre of every climate response. An approach to climate action known as “just transition,” which addresses the needs of workers, women and communities, must form the basis of climate action. In other words, it’s time for just transition to form the basis of “Climate Action 2.0” to unlock, unleash and accelerate climate transformations.
This report analyses climate finance flows to assess whether funding is really doing enough to put people at the centre of climate action. The findings show:
- A shockingly low 2.8% of multilateral climate finance for mitigation has gone towards supporting just transitions – just US$630 million over more than a decade.
- This means just one dollar in every 35 has been spent supporting just transitions. Just transition approaches to climate action are jaw-droppingly under-funded.
- Less than one in 50 projects (1.9%) supported by the GCF and the CIF were found to be adequately listening to and supporting workers, women and community through just transition.
- Almost all just transition projects were found to be funded through the GCF, where fewer than one in 18 projects (10 out of 178 projects, or just 5.6%) adequately fulfilled just transition criteria. Only two CIF projects out of 466 (0.4 %) were found to be supporting just transition.
- Billionaire Jeff Bezos has spent more on purchasing and running his superyacht (US$635 million), than multilateral climate funds have spent on just transition across the Global South.
Authors: Teresa Anderson, Paula Castro, and Doug Hertzler
Data analysis: Ward Warmerdam and Jim Sanchez (Profundo Consultancy)
Acknowledgements and thanks: Nina Moeller, Tara Daniel, Agnes Schim van der Loeff, Brandon Wu, David Archer, Tanjir Hossain, Fabiana Ferreira Alves, Erika Azevedo, Ana Carolina Moretti, Jessica Siviero, Isabel Iparraguirre, Liliana Demartini, Zahra Hdidou, Jessica Mandanda, Julie Middleton, Hannah Gurney, and Harriet Mackaill-Hill
Layout and design: www.nickpurserdesign.com
Date published: November 2025