Reflections on Just Transitions: Bringing feminist analysis to the UNFCCC

WEDO, as part of the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), supports the coordination of a powerhouse group of advocates working to bring feminist analyses of systems change into dialogues and policy-making around just transition happening under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC).?

Just two weeks ago, we participated in the second dialogue hosted by the Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP). This dialogue brought together governments and civil society organizations to discuss the forging of holistic, just and equitable transition pathways to decarbonize our economies and societies.

What's on the Agenda?

The workshop was structured across two days of intense dialogue, featuring presentations, thematic breakout sessions, World Café-style discussions, and facilitator-led reflection rounds. The primary focus was navigating the complexities of transitioning away from fossil-fuel-based economies towards more sustainable and equitable models that guarantee positive social and environmental outcomes. Topics that drove the discussions across multiple tables and breakout rooms included:

• Holistic approaches to just transitions that integrate social, economic and environmental dimensions
• Strategies to create decent work and uphold labor rights
• Inclusive and participatory approaches to just transition
• The role of social protection, upskilling and reskilling programs, and social dialogue to ensure the success of just transition pathways
• Unpacking the full range of means of implementation (Finance, Technology and Capacity Building) and leveraging international cooperation for a people-centric just transition

Civil society was cautiously optimistic about the possibility of finally getting the chance to discuss systemic issues, barriers and opportunities to achieve justice within and between countries.?

A feminist approach

The WGC Just Transition Working Group is made up of many dynamic feminists collectively dreaming, conversing, debunking, writing, advocating and strategizing for a world beyond capitalism, colonialism, racism, patriarchy and extractivism. Building from previous work, and as outlined in a written submission to the UNFCCC , WGC inputs were focused on shaping the conversation around social justice, gender equality and human rights in the context of these transitions, bringing political feminist analysis into what was largely a deeply depoliticized space, and challenging and debunking narratives and systems that perpetuate harm, in particular harms that are capitalist, colonialist and militarized in nature.

We emphasized that a just transition requires:

• Feminist approach: Advocating for prioritizing the needs and rights of women, gender-diverse individuals, and marginalized groups, especially Afro-descendant and Indigenous women impacted by environmental degradation.
• Rethinking growth:? Questioning and dismantling the infinite growth-centered models that have breached multiple planetary boundaries and brought us to the brink of ecological collapse. Pushing for urgent and planned reductions in the intensity of material and energy consumption by countries in the global North.
• Human rights and nature: Emphasizing that people-centric transitions require access to a clean, healthy and safe environment for all and advocating for the rights of nature.
• Proper and ethical use of critical minerals: Highlighting the human and labor rights violations present at all stages of the supply and manufacturing chains of critical minerals. Challenging and resisting “green” extractivism that serves countries in the global North while widening the gap between rich and poor countries. Advocating for mechanisms and processes to ensure human rights, gender equity, and Indigenous rights, including the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), in the development of projects that may affect Indigenous communities, lands, territories, and resources.
• Recognition of care work: Understanding that care work, including child care, elder care, cooking, cleaning, land stewardship and beyond, is the work that makes all other work possible. Demanding that conceptualization of the workforce in a just transition include the many domestic and care workers, disproportionately women, who are historically left out of such definitions and their work unpaid, undervalued and invisibilized.
• Procedural justice and inclusive participation: Advocating for fair and inclusive processes where rights holders, community members and all interested, affected or relevant parties are able to influence and participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their lives. Continuing to push for mechanisms to guarantee proper participation of civil society in the JTWP via the establishment of its advisory body.?
• Financial reform: Highlighting how the current climate finance landscape, dominated by loans and skewed towards private investment, perpetuates colonial cycles of debt and calling for climate finance that prioritizes grants over loans. Calling for the redirection of military and fossil fuel subsidies to policies that prioritize wellbeing and life instead of death and destruction, such as universal social protection, healthcare, and education.

Power of Participation

The WGC’s presence in this space was more than a call to include women and gender equality in the just transition and the JTWP. Rather it was about centering true system change in the discussions. We saw our role as feminists to challenge harmful narratives and false solutions, and to bring systems and political analysis to the room. When it came to talking about financing the just transition, we wanted to highlight how unfair international financial and debt-creating structures prevent countries in the global South from being able to create and fund coherent just transition strategies, and to question why there is always money for wars and genocide and never money for climate action and wellbeing-centred policies.?

And we saw Governments respond positively to our interventions, echoing the need to tackle militarism, redirect finance, and to ensure gender equality and human rights if we are to see a truly just transition for all.

What next?

The dialogue provided a valuable platform for exchanging ideas, but as we reflected in our closing remarks, the discussions also revealed significant challenges. Transformational change requires a departure from the systems and structures that have driven both environmental, social and economic injustices within and between countries. This transformational thinking is right now sorely lacking from the JTWP. We left the workshop more committed than ever to continue entering these spaces bravely together, and to speak truth to power wherever we do our advocacy around just transition.

For WEDO, the path forward is clear: we must continue advocating for inclusive, feminist, and justice-centered approaches to these transitions. Only by dismantling current structures of harm can we build a world where people and nature thrive.