With the conclusion of COP30, several important questions have emerged — particularly around the just transition and its implications for employment in the developing world.
To reflect on the outcomes of COP30 and the implications of the energy transition for work and workers, the JustJobs Network convened a webinar titled “COP30 and Beyond: Translating Climate Commitments into Workforce Solutions”.
The discussion was moderated by Sabina Dewan, Founder & Executive Director, JustJobs Network, who steered a timely conversation on climate commitments and green workforce transitions.
Key Insights from Andrew Light
Andrew Light, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs, provided a geopolitical analysis of the climate landscape, focusing on the resilience of international agreements despite political shifts in the United States.
- While the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under the Trump administration acts as a “stress test” on global climate governance, the architecture remains intact because no other nations are following the U.S. out of the agreement.
- The U.S. absence has emboldened fossil fuel-exporting countries to diminish global climate ambition and “throw sand in the gears” of progress.
- Significant but underacknowledged progress at COP30 such as the Just Transition Work Programme, the Belem Gender Action Plan, and a new global initiative on jobs and skills.
- Countries are proceeding with the submission of NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) for the 2035 commitment period.
- The world has moved from a projected 4–6°C warming trajectory to just under 3°C — still inadequate but significantly better than where the world was a decade ago when Paris was negotiated.
- Global ambition has deepened qualitatively; with approximately 80% of NDCs submitted before the Belem meeting included substantive descriptions regarding “just transitions”, indicating that countries like Colombia and Sri Lanka are working hard and advancing independently.
- Subnational actors — states, cities, universities, companies — will again step up, just as they did under the first Trump withdrawal. Moreover, remnants of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other U.S. clean-energy provisions still constitute one of the largest pro-climate policy footprints globally.
- Development goals, such as poverty eradication and energy access, must be made compatible with climate mitigation by decoupling economic growth from growth in emissions.
- Light cited International Energy Agency data showing that in 2024, 40% of global electricity was delivered through clean energy sources, proving that the transition is accelerating because solar combined with storage is now the cheapest power source available.
- Investment in the clean energy economy is robust and has grown from $185 billion a decade ago to $1 trillion in 2024.
Key Insights from Arunabha Ghosh
Arunabha Ghosh, Special Envoy (South Asia) to COP30 and Founder & CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water, highlighted the urgent need to correct a global “perception gap” — one that consistently underestimates the scale and speed of climate action in the Global South.
Drawing on examples from Uruguay, Sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam, Egypt and India, he underscored how developing economies are already driving meaningful climate progress.
- Climate action in the Global South is already happening at scale, and should not be dismissed as isolated success stories.
- Before we fill the ambition gap, we must also fill the perception gap — the perception that climate action is not happening in the Global South is “misplaced”.
- Beyond energy, Ghosh outlined the untapped opportunity in a broader green economy definition, encompassing the circular economy and nature and bioeconomy, which promises substantial economic growth and job creation.
- India’s green economy alone could attract 4 trillion USD in cumulative investments and create 48 million full-time equivalent jobs over the next two decades, positioning the green transition as a powerful, general-purpose driver for just and inclusive economic growth.
- Strong job-creation potential in the bioeconomy — up to 100 jobs per 1 million USD invested.
- There is no single transition “roadmap”. Multiple roadmaps are needed to reflect deep economic dependencies on fossil fuels — not only for energy, but for public finance, revenue and employment.
- To achieve lasting change, Ghosh proposed a three-pronged approach: a behavioural nudge from consumers, a corresponding supply-side response from markets, and a shift in cultural aspirations to make sustainable lifestyles “cool” rather than a sacrifice.
Key Insights from Joanes Atela
Joanes Atela, Founder & Executive Director, Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN), provided a grounded assessment of Africa’s transition landscape, emphasising that while policy and technological shifts toward renewables are advancing, the justice dimension is often missing in implementation.
No one-size-fits-all pathway: While global consensus around just transition is growing, African countries are navigating multiple pathways shaped by local contexts. These pathways determine how justice is understood — and too often, justice is lost at the implementation stage.
Atela outlined four key transition pathways in Africa:
- Policy transition: Many African countries have adopted ambitious renewable energy policies, representing a significant milestone for the continent.
- Technological transition: Renewable energy initiatives — particularly around electricity access — are expanding. However, much of this transition is not driven from within Africa, raising questions about ownership and who bears the consequences of transition, including job losses.
- Market transition: Markets are evolving in response to renewable energy ambitions, but this shift is largely driven by private sector actors rather than public institutions.
- Social transition: The most critical — and most neglected — dimension, where jobs, workers, and communities are at stake. In many cases, just transition is narrowly interpreted as an energy shift, without adequate institutional arrangements and mechanisms to protect workers and communities.
Atela also highlighted that financing for just transition remains weak, with unclear mechanisms and limited involvement of domestic private sector actors. This again raises questions of ownership — whose jobs are created, replaced, or lost — which remain insufficiently addressed in practice.
Two critical institutional changes needed to advance just transition in Africa:
- Multi-sectoral just transition frameworks that go beyond energy to include agriculture, transport, and other key sectors.
- Justice-oriented tracking and reporting systems that go beyond output-based indicators (such as jobs created) to include process-oriented indicators capable of capturing equity, intersectionality, and participation.
