Nona Chai. Photo credit: José Bravo

Just Transition Alliance Executive Director José Bravo and I participated in UN Climate Week in Panamá City (May 19-23) to monitor the situation on international climate policy ahead of major policy forums this year: the Bonn climate talks (SB62) and COP30 in Belém, Brazil.

José and Nona. Photo credit: Nona Chai

During Climate Week, JTA also represented the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) at the Third Dialogue of the Just Transition Work Program. DCJ is a civil society constituency within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change representing more than 200 organizations focusing on issues of climate justice and human rights.

Overall, we came away from Climate Week with deep concerns. The Just Transition Work Program dialogues must not end up as siloed conversations with little influence on actual decision making. We need concrete action to support an inclusive just transition led by and for workers, Indigenous Peoples, and affected communities.

North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) Instagram post featuring our JTA coauthored article. Image Credit: NACLA

In early June, the North American Congress on Latin America published our article, “Panamá to Belém: Grassroots Demands for a Real Just Transition.” Learn more about what José Bravo and I witnessed and intervened in, regarding concerns and ambitions in the lead up to COP30, in the excerpt below!

Panamá to Belém: Grassroots Demands for a Real Just Transition

Instead of pushing harmful “solutions,” upcoming Paris Agreement implementation talks must commit to several indispensable actions for co-creating livable communities based on Just Transition and Indigenous Just Transition Principles, in all stages of climate policymaking. These intersectional, justice-oriented solutions include participatory budgetary processes and providing just transition funding to the most affected communities.

First, the UNFCCC must implement participatory budgeting processes. These processes would involve workers and community members leading and deciding how to spend public budgets for adaptation and other necessary projects and investments. Second, Global South and other gravely affected workers and environmental justice communities must be compensated for loss and damages and have access to just transition funding to implement self-determined, community-led projects that support capacity building. Third, just transition funding must be prioritized through new, additional, transparent, and non-debt-creating funding. Finally, implementation efforts must fund the local generation of community-proposed and -led solutions to climate chaos, such as agroecology and renewable energy microgrids integrated with food, water, and connected with regional energy systems. All of these actions must honor Indigenous Peoples by adhering to free, prior, and informed consent.

Though far from exhaustive, these priorities would ensure that what is produced as “green” does not shift a burden on the Global South and that local/regional economies are supported. An extractive economy needs fossil fuels to survive, and we cannot survive with continued reliance on fossil fuels.