The U.S. Climate Action Network logo. Image credit: U.S. Climate Action Network

The historic Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (TAFF) Conference in Santa Marta, Colombia, and the SB64 Intersessional gathering in Bonn, Germany, strengthened movement ties between JTA and U.S. Climate Action Network (USCAN) members. Our collaborations renewed and generated new energy during these April and June 2026 convenings, respectively. In particular, USCAN-JTA communications and policy collaborations have been very fruitful and will remain essential to advancing just transition and climate justice advocacy.

According to USCAN’s website, the organization “envisions a resilient and sustainable future where all people and ecosystems thrive. In this future, communities most impacted by the climate crisis–across the U.S. and globally–will achieve the justice and self-determination they deserve, building a healthy world for all.”

USCAN practices this vision in many spaces, including at the international level.

During a June 2026 media briefing in Bonn, representatives from JTA, USCAN, United Steelworkers Local 675, Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Ecológica, La Vía Campesina, Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization, and The Chisholm Legacy Project presented just transition movement demands. Panelists spoke about frontline worker rights in the energy sector, impacted local communities, geoengineering, food sovereignty, agroecology, and Black Liberation, among other interrelated topics.

“Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken: US Communities Advance a Just Climate Transition in the Face of Government Attacks” Press Conference, Bonn, Germany, June 2026. Image credit: U.S. Climate Action Network

In a blog post reflecting on the jointly-organized media briefing, USCAN Policy and Communications Coordinator Kate Yeo wrote, “Taken together, the speakers offered a powerful reminder that the transition away from fossil fuels is not simply a technological challenge. It is a political, economic, and moral one. A Just Transition is about building a different future altogether. We remain unbowed, unbent, and unbroken toward co-creating a just transition with our shared power!”

Accompanying this media briefing, USCAN and JTA collaborated on a handout that emphasized the imperative of a just fossil fuel phaseout, while resisting false solutions. The two organizations also produced social media posts that highlighted the significance of TAFF outcomes, why the Bonn climate talks merit attention, and provided an explainer of the Just Transition Mechanism, also known as the Belém-Antalya Mechanism.

USCAN and JTA, alongside many other allied groups, know that we have much work to do in Turkey during COP31 and in Tuvalu for TAFF 2. In particular, the Just Transition Work Programme will be a major focus, as the co-chairs’ informal note from Bonn will inform COP31 deliberations. We continue to be concerned about “nature-based” solutions that greenwash the harms of continuing extractivist, colonial practices that must be exposed and rejected for a just fossil fuel phaseout.

Though working at the international level is arduous and requires us to confront significant challenges that often can feel almost insurmountable, our collaborations have shown what our shared power and knowledges can yield. With USCAN and JTA at each other’s side, we feel re-energized to continue collectively moving toward just transition and climate justice.

JTA thanks USCAN’s Kate Yeo and Sriram Madhusoodanan for reviewing and providing comments on an earlier draft of this post.