COP30 and the push for a Just Transition: why equity must power the path to net zero

News | David Drabble | Nov 2025

Carrying forward the work of COP29: why Just Transition remains a global priority

One of the most important energy policy forums has begun this week in Brazil: COP30. The degree of engagement in climate policy varies hugely country to country, and one of the areas that previous COPs have struggled most to gain policy momentum on is the equity of the low carbon transition. 

At COP29 in Baku, technical dialogue did not result in a proposed Just Transition work programme, leaving the way in which social protection, gender equity, and participation would be embedded across the global climate agenda unresolved. 

This ‘unfinished business’ moves to COP30 in Brazil, where Just Transition is expected to take centre stage. With Brazil’s presidency pushing for institutional reforms, practical financing, and broad participation, there is an opportunity for Just Transition to be incorporated into legally binding Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In the absence of global leadership on Just Transition and exemplars, research can help fill this policy gap.

The Centre for Energy Policy’s framework for a fair transition

The Centre for Energy Policy (CEP) at the University of Strathclyde has led UK and international research on integrating energy justice principles into policy design. CEP’s Net Zero principles, first developed for COP26 in Glasgow, offers a useful framework for understanding and evaluating policy impact: 

  • Understanding who really pays and gains 
  • Identifying pathways that deliver growing and equitable prosperity 
  • Enabling actions that deliver near-term economic returns
  • Avoiding outcomes that involve offshoring of emissions, jobs and GDP 
  • Recognising Net Zero as a societal and public policy challenge

Our work highlights that a meaningful Just Transition requires policies that prioritise protection for vulnerable groups, such as those with protected characteristics. Low carbon solutions such as insultation and heat pumps are hard to access for renters and people who live in apartments, who are disproportionately from disadvantaged groups. We also call for regional equity through targeted training, decent work programmes, and support for local business development for those who will be directly affected by the transition. 

For CEP, Just Transition is more than a technical concept; it’s a policy challenge and a historic opportunity to overturn long-standing inequalities, anchoring climate action in fairness, and addressing the needs of workers, communities, and social groups who bear the brunt of change. 

Ensuring public trust and lasting change through fair outcomes

Practically, fair outcomes from decarbonisation are essential for sustaining public trust and maintaining the consensus needed to accelerate progress towards net zero. With COP30’s ambition and using evidence-based policies, there is a unique chance to help deliver a fair, effective energy transition which leaves no community behind.

 

 

 

Photo credit: UNclimatechange on Flickr