A recent ActionAid report highlights a critical gap in climate finance: less than 3% (2.8%) of global funding is currently directed toward just transition initiatives that prioritize workers, women, and communities. The report, Climate Finance for Just Transition: How the Finance Flows, analyzed data from the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Investment Funds, revealing that only 1.96% of projects actively involve and support people through just transition.
ActionAid emphasizes that a shift away from fossil fuels and industrial agriculture toward renewable energy and agroecology must also protect jobs, rights, and access to affordable food and energy. Just transition strategies involve engaging communities in planning, supporting new job opportunities, developing greener local economies, and providing temporary income support as climate-destructive industries close.
The report includes examples from Brazil, where communities in Maranhão face pressures from industrial agriculture expansion. Traditional livelihoods, such as harvesting babassu coconuts, are threatened by deforestation and pesticide use, highlighting the need for climate policies that safeguard local communities.
Ahead of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, ActionAid is urging global coordination on just transition, proposing a “Belém Action Mechanism” to ensure collaboration, shared learning, and implementation support for communities affected by the climate crisis.
Arthur Larok, Secretary General of ActionAid International, stressed that polluters, not workers and communities, should bear the cost of climate action.
Teresa Anderson, report author and Global Lead on Climate Justice, highlighted the human impact of underfunded just transition approaches, saying: “No one should have to choose between a secure job and a safe planet. Just transition approaches make sure that climate action prioritizes people’s daily needs and doesn’t accidentally push people deeper into poverty. Without just transition approaches, climate action risks unintended harm, backlash, and ever-more delay.”
ActionAid, a global movement advocating for human rights, social justice, gender equality, and poverty eradication, continues to call for investment in approaches that protect the most vulnerable as the world moves toward a greener future
