Tracey Wainwright in Brazil
As a first-time delegate to COP30, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. But I understood that my mandate was to push our agenda on a just transition towards an environmentally sustainable economy, which includes protecting workers, ensuring guarantees on job security and retraining opportunities.
I was part of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which arrived in Brazil with a set of shared demands, known as the Belém Action Mechanism, or BAM for short, that fall perfectly in line with UNISON’s objectives as we move to net zero.
BAM calls on governments to deliver climate protections and prosperity, guarantee finance and investment at a level that will ensure new green jobs with decent work standards, and to ensure that local communities are included in the process – effectively putting workers and communities at the heart of the negotiations.
BAM!
Monday 10 November. Having arrived on Sunday afternoon, I was ready and raring to go when it kicked off today. The sheer size of the venue was unbelievable. Luckily, negotiations do not start until Tuesday, so today was all about finding my way around and checking where the meetings and events I want to attend over the week will take place. What I thought would take a couple of hours turned out to be a full day.
Tuesday saw the formal launch of BAM, which our delegation attended. It was great to see so many people from different organisations and delegations in support of BAM. However, it was disappointing that the negotiating and activation groups had not included the trade unions at an international level, and are now only realising that communities, workers and trade unions need to be part of the discussions.
There is also a debate around whether a just transition mechanism is needed. While some of the smaller countries in the global south (134 of them in total, plus China) agree that a mechanism is needed, they are not sure what that looks like. It is disappointing, also, to see that countries in the global north are reluctant to sign on to BAM.
North v South
Ian Rivera of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice
Wednesday saw another packed day as I attended the just transition negotiation meeting as an observer, with clear division between the global north and global south.
There were strong objections by the global south regarding the Carbon Boarder Adjustment Mechanism for global trading (CBAM), which would disproportionately impact the south from a financial perspective, as forced trade measures on developing countries would impact emission reductions and increase poverty. Citing CBAM as an exploitation of developing countries, the global south were clear that the only mechanism to counter this was BAM. They championed the inclusion of trade unions around the table.
Unions and ministers
Meeting on Thursday morning with trade union reps in the energy industry from the UK, Columbia, Canada, Indonesia, Latin America and Korea. Finance was a big issue for everyone; the people who will suffer are the local communities, whose energy prices will increase significantly as we move to renewables.
Indonesia and Latin America are reliant on coal and have, respectively, 750,000 and 25,000 workers in the industry that will be affected. Delegates from Latin America confirmed that governments have been trying to get the multinationals around the table with no success. All agreed that just transition is only being pushed by the trade unions, who are educating workers and communities but have little or no voice with government. The quality of jobs is a concern for workers as they don’t see the same standards of living being offered in renewables. New agreements don’t come anywhere near the terms and conditions that have been negotiated over the years.
In the afternoon, I attended a meeting with UK climate minister Katie White and senior leaders of UK businesses. It was refreshing to hear from those in the room regarding their concerns; everyone agreed that finance seems to be too far removed, so the ability to transition was difficult, and that the government needed to show leadership.
Education needs to be a focus; many jobs have transferable skills yet qualifications do not reflect this, while those in the gas industry have skills that can easily transfer to wind but employees would have to fully retrain to qualify. Katie White confirmed there is a Green Jobs Road Map giving information on how we change from carbon intensive to green roles.
Not being one to turn down an opportunity, I spoke about the necessity of trade unions and workers having a seat at the table, as frontline workers are ideally placed to help in the move to net zero, and reaffirmed the issues around upskilling. I also raised concern about the impact that the closure of carbon intensive industries has on communities, with nothing yet to replace them. Renewable projects are not built in these areas, and we are in danger of seeing a repeat of the 1980s when communities were decimated.
Saving their land
We arrived on Friday morning to a scene full of emergency services, riot police, mounted guards and water cannons – all this for a peaceful protest by indigenous people of the region wanting their voices heard. Their protest: to save their lands and forest. These people have seen their lands taken and forests destroyed. Inside, we continued to hear the call for BAM to ensure that all voices are heard.
On Saturday morning we joined communities, action groups and trade unions from around the world for the March of the People. This march covered every aspect of climate change and, while there was a carnival atmosphere, everyone was acutely aware of the reason we were there.
Sunday saw me travelling home, very tired, very emotional and wondering if I had made a difference. But being able to hear from people around the world talking about the changes that have been implemented since COP29 has been inspiring, from Mansi Shah – a member of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India, who has been working with women in rural communities to become solar panel installers and setting up their own businesses, to senior business leaders and ministers.
As I left, I knew that the following week would continue with the negotiations and hopefully the conversations, emails and texts we had sent to the ministers and negotiators of our respective countries would make a difference to those negotiations.
COP closes with a victory
Saturday 22 November. As COP drew to a close, we waited for news on BAM and our other priorities. There was little or no movement on the core COP issue of embedding previous commitments to move away from fossil fuels, and the global north failed to honour their financial commitments to the global south. But one really important victory for workers was that an agreement was made to develop BAM – making a commitment to worker and community voices on the just transition mechanisms. The intervention of trade unions, action groups and communities all helped to make this possible.
For the first time, workers, unions, women and gender groups, youth, communities and indigenous people get a dedicated place at COP to work on issues and rights. This is a massive achievement that looked like an impossible demand due to bigger political discussions. It is great to hear that governments have agreed that BAM must be developed by COP31 next year.
