COP31: African trade unions and climate negotiators unite in Nairobi to demand a worker-centered Just Transition

African trade union leaders and climate negotiators have converged in Nairobi, Kenya for a three-day summit to forge a unified continental stance on energy sovereignty and green industrialization ahead of the COP31 climate negotiations.

 

The Second New Energy for Africa Convening meeting marks a critical step in ensuring that the voices of African workers are integrated into the continent’s climate agenda.

 

Opening the event, Rose Omamo, Deputy President of ITUC-Africa, emphasized that the transition to a low-carbon economy must be rooted in social equity.

 

She asserted that the labor movement is championing the "Reclaim and Restore" campaign, which views energy not as a market commodity but as a fundamental right.

 

“Energy is a public good,” Omamo stated during her opening address. “It should not be treated only as a commodity for those who can afford it. We call for public and democratic control of Africa’s energy systems so that they can provide reliable and affordable energy to our people”.

 

Omamo also raised concerns regarding the global race for Africa’s critical minerals, such as lithium and cobalt, which are essential for renewable technologies.

 

She warned that “Africa must not repeat the experience of exporting raw materials and later importing expensive finished products” and insisted that these resources must support local manufacturing and decent employment.

 

Echoing these sentiments, Dr. George Manful, delivering remarks on behalf of AGN Chair, Dr. Nana Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, highlighted the stark disparity in global climate finance.

 

Despite possessing vast renewable energy potential, Africa receives a disproportionately small share of clean-energy investment.

 

“This imbalance must be corrected if the transition is to support Africa’s development rather than reproduce existing patterns of dependence, extraction and inequality,” the AGN Chair’s statement read.

 

He further argued that the success of a just transition should be measured by human impact rather than technical metrics alone.

 

“A just transition cannot be measured solely by installed megawatts, emissions reductions or new electricity connections,” the Chair noted. “It must also be measured by the quality of jobs created, affordability of energy, protection of workers... and the capacity of African countries to retain value from their natural resources”.

 

A primary objective of the Nairobi gathering is to institutionalize cooperation between organized labor and the African Group of Negotiators (AGN). This collaboration aims to ensure that workers’ rights, job security, and social protection are embedded in the African negotiating text for COP31 in Antalya.

 

With over 600 million Africans still lacking access to electricity, both leaders agreed that initiatives like "Mission 300" must go beyond mere connection numbers to foster local industrialization and skills development.

 

“Workers must be at the centre of the energy transition,” Omamo concluded. “They cannot be treated as observers or invited only after policies and investment decisions have been finalised”.

 

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

There are no jobs on a dead planet – trade unions for climate justice

The large-scale, long-term shift in the planet’s weather patterns is a threat to the livelihoods of the world’s population.

Vulnerable people are most at risk because of their poor capacity to adapt to the changing change. Reducing the release of greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane – into the atmosphere will help mitigate the effects of global warming.

“If we allow climate change to continue growing and growing and causing havoc, sooner than later it will reach a catastrophic stage which becomes impossible to manage; at that point the planet will be dead and there will be no jobs on a dead planet,” observed Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

Globally, businesses and investors are taking bold climate action to foster a low-carbon economy and are expected to call on governments to create an ambitious, actionable climate agreement in Paris.

The UN Climate Change Summit this December will attract more than 1,000 of the world’s leading companies who have vested interest in the outcomes of the negotiations.

Whilst business leaders take action, trade unions cannot sit aloof in the face of climate change, hence the need to mobilize workers across the globe to have interest in the quest for climate justice, said Mr. Ofei-Nkansah.

“Working people, trade unions are particular about jobs; without jobs there are no trade unions. So in saying that there are no jobs on a dead planet, we’ll like to draw attention to those who are cynical and skeptical about trade union involvement to the fact that trade unions are part of the citizens of the global community and that trade unions exist only when there are jobs,” he said.

Ghana, like many Africa countries, have majority of the workforce in the agricultural sector. Farmers have been at the mercy of the weather in the recent times.

The negative impacts of the changing climate on agricultural production threaten livelihoods and food security.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), access to information remains the single most important factor for Ghanaian agriculturists to cope with the unexpected changes in the weather.

Mr. Kyekyeku Oppong-Boadi, a Deputy Director at the EPA, says agricultural extension officers will need the right information at the right time in order to help meet the needs of the farmers.

“Our focus is on how the farmers will be able to adapt to the changing climate; the types of crops that they have to plant at what time and also how they can prepare themselves in case there is a short in rainfall,” he said.

Sustainable land and water management, according to GAWU, remains critical to agricultural production and food security.

The Union also expects State actors to prioritize intensification of food production to cope with the challenge of water scarcity as a result of climate change.

“We must have the resources to develop the kind of varieties which can fruit even in an environment that has high temperatures, provided we’ve taken care of the supply of water that is needed for the plant to grow,” he said. “It is important to organize the people who are doing the farming so that they take control of the new systems, otherwise the big corporations will give them a raw deal”.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh