1,000 organisations call for a people‑centred Just Transition at COP30
Biggest coordinated appeal to turn promises into real‑world change
More than 1,000 organisations from 106 countries – spanning trade unions, Indigenous leaders, feminist and youth movements, Afro‑descendant and peasant groups, environmental advocates, disability networks and community organisations – have united to urge governments to stop treating climate action as a numbers game. Their open letter calls for a Just Transition that makes climate work for the people who live its consequences.
COP30, billed as the first “implementation COP” since Paris, is seen as a test of whether multilateralism can still deliver after years of drift and broken trust. A decade after the Paris Agreement pledged to secure a Just transition, safeguarding rights and livelihoods, that promise remains unfulfilled, and it’s not without consequences: climate action has stalled, inequality has deepened and communities have been left behind.
The full list of signatories can be found here
Luc Triangle, General Secretary ITUC, said: “Workers and their unions are calling governments at COP30 to act on climate change in a way that protects people and delivers prosperity. Promises to create good, green jobs must be kept. However, progress is falling short. Funding is lacking, and many of these new jobs do not meet decent work standards. That’s why we need a decision at COP30 on a “Belém Action Mechanism for Just Transition”. We need governments to take the increasing climate impact on workers and their families seriously.”
Tasneem Essop, Climate Action Network International, said: “Enough of broken promises. Ten years after Paris, only 3% of climate finance has gone to Just Transition policies. Climate injustice is built into the system – COP30 is where that ends. From workers to Indigenous Peoples, people everywhere are uniting because they’re done being left behind. Belém must prove that climate action serves people, not profit. The Belém Action Mechanism is how we shift power, remove global barriers, and deliver real support for climate action that centres workers and communities. Let Belém be remembered as the place where fairness and justice became non-negotiable.”
Leon Sealey-Huggins, Senior Campaigner Just Transition and Global Climate Justice, War on Want – Demand Climate Justice Campaign, said: “From debt and trade injustice to corporate capture, the same systems driving the climate crisis still hold back real change. At COP30, governments must agree a Belém Action Mechanism that confronts these inequalities and builds national spaces where people — not profit — shape the path of transition.”
Mwanahamisi Singano, Global Policy Director, Women’s Environment and Development Organization, said: “Ten years after the Paris Agreement, extraction continues, but increasingly painted green. After thirty years of negotiations, we lack implementation that recognises and centres the care that sustains all life. Feminists call on governments to step forward and act in response to the urgency of our times at COP30. We call for the establishment of the Belém Action Mechanism, and a JTWP decision that prioritises consent over exploitation and that integrates care work as a key pillar for ambitious climate action.”
Carmen Wabnitz, Board Member Klimadelegation, Co-Contact Point YOUNGO Just Transition Working Group, said: “Delivering on a just transition is the real litmus test for climate policy. It shows whether governments are aligned with people or power. Our generation refuses to accept climate action that deepens injustice. If Belém is to be the implementation COP, then just transition cannot remain mere principles, but be turned into reality through a Belem Action Mechanism that delivers justice for those living the transition every day.”
Contact:
Attila Kulcsar, CAN International, akulcsar@climatenetwork.org, +44 7472 124872 WhatsApp