Short Abstract:

Just transition is critical for African economies in a competitive world. Equitable allocation of resources and enhancing local solutions through improved access to climate finance and technology are vital factors. Just transition defined by local visions is critical in the African discourse.

Long Abstract:

Climate change has quickly emerged as a significant threat to our future. The increasingly bleak projections of rising global average temperatures and worsening extreme weather conditions show the existential threat that climate change poses to humanity.

Climate finance and decarbonization policies and plans must encourage groups most impacted by climate change in a timely, adequate, and equitable manner, enabling efficient climate action at the local level. Ensuring fair allocation of resources and enhancing local solutions through improving access to climate finance and technology are vital factors. This implies that we must aim for both accountability and transparency in present climate finance streams and influence the global climate finance architecture, so that key focus nations can access it. We must encourage investment in local climate remedies led by the global south.

Guaranteeing socially just adaptation responses necessitates comprehension of the most susceptible groups to the effects of climate change and appropriate adaptation to meet their needs. Adaptation-related social issues are diversified and context-specific. They include both procedural justice and distributive justice.

A Just Transition asserts Africa's right to progress and industrialization based on the Paris Agreement-negotiated language of equity and the concept of shared but differentiated responsibilities, taking into account different national circumstances. It means that Africa gets a larger redistribution of wealth and ensures that climate action occurs concurrently with development, and in turn, more green jobs are created. Roundtable panellists will unpack the topics: just transition, just adaptation, loss and damages and reparations.