COP30 takes a hopeful step towards Justice, but does not go far enough: CAN

COP30 banner. Credit - United Nations.

22 November 2025 - Climate Action Network International (CAN) welcomes the adoption of the Just Transition mechanism as one of the strongest rights-based outcomes in the history of the UN climate negotiations. At the same time, CAN warns that COP30 has produced weak outcomes in the very areas that are critical to ensuring justice for vulnerable and frontline communities. A dangerously weak outcome on Adaptation finance leaves little hope for impacted communities. 

Further adding to this injustice, governments did not deliver a concrete global response plan to address the ambition gap, and only agreed to have further processes to address this gap including on a just, equitable and orderly transition away from fossil fuels – while welcome, we need more than a process. We need implementation that includes finance to urgently address the root cause of the climate crisis. 

The real faultline running through COP30 was the refusal of developed countries to agree to the provision of finance across all areas. Their blocking of commitments on Adaptation finance, mitigation ambition, and the transition away from fossil fuels directly weakened the overall outcome. By once again failing to meet their climate-finance obligations – obligations grounded in historical responsibility – developed countries have undermined trust and fairness in the process and limited what this COP could have achieved.

A Breakthrough for Rights and Justice

The Just Transition mechanism stands as the major achievement of COP30 and for workers and communities across the world. More ambition on climate is possible if we put social justice at the heart. No COP decision has ever carried such ambitious and comprehensive language on rights and inclusion: human rights; labour rights; the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-decendants; and strong references to gender equality, women’s empowerment, education, youth development, and more. 

This outcome did not happen by accident. This is the result of the hard fought struggles and collective power of trade unions, communities, social movements, Indigenous Peoples’ organisations, and civil society over many years and especially escalating this year for an outcome at this COP. 

The Just Transition mechanism, popularly known as the Belém Action Mechanism or BAM, by activists and chanted in the COP30 halls, also opens promising discussions on support for Just Transition pathways: a clear reference to additional, grant-based finance and recognition of the barriers that prevent Just Transition efforts. 

A first victory in this process, this is by no means the end. Movements will remain active and determined to secure their seat at the table and ensure the agreed operationalisation of the mechanism by next year. 

Adaptation: A Grim Outcome

In stark contrast to the Just Transition mechanism victory, the Adaptation outcome falls far short of what climate-vulnerable countries and communities urgently need – and expected from COP30.

The watering down of the obligations of developed countries to provide Adaptation finance, and pushing the time-lines to deliver the tripling of finance to 2035 is a betrayal of vulnerable and impacted people in the Global South and driven mainly by the EU and Japan.  In addition, the absence of any reference to the Global Goal on Adaptation contributes to the weakness of this outcome on Adaptation. 

Fossil Fuels: A Deep Disappointment

The final COP30 decision contains no mention of a just, equitable and fully-financed transition away from fossil fuels – an essential response to the ambition gap. Given that oil, coal and gas remain the root cause of climate breakdown, this omission represents a severe failure for COP30. However, the adoption of the Just Transition mechanism, which secures the interests of workers and communities in the energy transition, provides a pathway for countries to transition away from fossil fuels in a just, equitable and orderly manner, even if the political signal was lacking in the final decision. 

Process Concerns: A Worrying Trend?

COPs must deliver concrete outcomes, not sink into cycles of dialogues, roadmaps, and reports. For this reason, CAN is concerned about the direction of recent COP processes. 

COP29 in Baku was deeply challenging; Belém has not been much better. The growing presence of fossil fuel lobbyists and the persistent lack of transparency as negotiations increasingly take place behind closed doors,  risks the erosion of trust in the process, already at low levels. The current trends are worrying and a review of the process and its governance is needed to ensure that the response to the global climate crisis meets the urgency and ambition needed. 

Going forward, this process needs to be held accountable. Civil Society will hold governments to account at home and in these halls. Those governments who continue to hold back real progress will be called out. COP Presidencies have an important role to play in ensuring inclusivity, transparency and the meaningful participation of civil society. 

Final Word

COP30 delivered a historic victory with the Just Transition mechanism – a breakthrough civil society, workers, and frontline communities fought for and won. But the broader Justice Package remains unfinished. Adaptation is weakened, and fossil fuel action is absent.

We will keep fighting.

Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network International, said: “We came here to get the Belém Action Mechanism – for families, for workers, for communities. The adoption of a Just Transition mechanism was a win shaped by years of pressure from civil society. This outcome didn’t fall from the sky; it was carved out through struggle, persistence, and the moral clarity of those living on the frontlines of climate breakdown. Governments must now honour this Just Transition mechanism with real action. Anything less is a betrayal of people – and of the Paris promise.

“Civil society held steady at this COP – together with frontline countries and movements who refused to let justice be pushed aside, even as some developed countries dug in their heels and tried to block agreement. 

“We will continue to fight for Adaptation – that is essential for protecting people by investing in their resilience to climate impacts, securing the resources they need to withstand rising risks, and ensuring no community is left exposed. Without Adaptation finance and a just, equitable, and fully funded plan to transition away from fossil fuels, governments are not confronting the root cause of the crisis. We have a win for justice from COP30, but we keep fighting.”

Anabella Rosemberg, Just Transition Lead, Climate Action Network International, said:   “Workers and environmental activists are united! The creation of a Just Transition mechanism is a significant achievement for social justice and climate justice, the people and the planet. The Just Transition mechanism comes with the most progressive rights-based framing we have ever seen in a COP decision. For the first time, labour rights, human rights, the right to a clean environment, Free, Prior and Informed Consent, and the inclusion of marginalised groups are all recognised as core to achieving more ambitious climate action. This didn’t come from nowhere. Social movements mobilised, organised, and put real solutions on the table. This is our victory, carved out despite all odds.

“But a mechanism grounded in rights is only powerful if it delivers. A Just Transition is not a side-chapter of climate policy – it is the lens through which the entire implementation of the Paris Agreement must now be guided. Now that the mechanism exists, governments must fill it with ambition, finance, and cooperation. Workers and communities have waited long enough – and we will keep fighting to ensure this mechanism which is for the people reaches the people.” – Climate Action Network