From Belém to Antalya – gains, gaps and challenges for a new Just Transition Mechanism 

Share: X (Twitter) Facebook LinkedIn WhatsApp Email Print Could a new mechanism to help countries transition to a cleaner, safer and fairer world be one of the main deliverables from the COP31 climate summit in Türkiye this November? Civil society groups - which played a key role in winning last year’s agreement in Brazil to set up a mechanism - want to see it come to life in Antalya and take shape in 2027. The concept of a “just transition” has gained momentum and widespread support in recent years. It recognises that countries have varying levels of responsibility for planet-heating emissions and unequal resources to adapt to the impacts of global warming and move away from fossil fuels. In July, UN Secretary General António Guterres told the High-Level Political Forum in New York: “We need to support the countries, communities and workers that depend on fossil fuels throughout the transition.” While few would dispute that need, governments at the UN climate talks are still working out how to respond to it with concrete action. With discussions set to produce a decision making the mechanism a reality at COP31, observers want to ensure the new mechanism is more than just a talking shop.  Here’s what’s at stake in the just transition negotiations before and at COP31: What has been agreed on the mechanism so far? At the mid-year climate negotiations in Bonn, just transition was one of the few key issues on which governments reached a consensus, including on how to review the progress of the Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP) - a process that led to agreement on a mechanism last year at COP30 in Belém, Brazil. Set up in 2022 and launched a year later, the aim of the JTWP is to discuss how to achieve a green economic and social shift that is fair, from the global down to the local level. Its accompanying mechanism will be tasked with strengthening international cooperation, technical support, capacity-building and knowledge-sharing to enable societies to become low-carbon and climate-resilient in a way that does not harm people and shares the benefits. Russia, Arab nations and a group of large emerging nations pushed for them to be separate - which they believe would make it easier to limit the scope of the mechanism - while the African Group defended joint work between the two processes. According to Anthony Dane of Southern Transitions, a South Africa-based “think and do-tank”, governments also have varying concerns around the mapping exercise, which is being carried out .