NAIROBI, Kenya: Africa’s trade union movement is heading towards the United Nations climate negotiations in Antalya with a sharper demand that the continent’s transition to a low-carbon economy must deliver beyond reductions in emissions. It must bring affordable and reliable energy, decent work, social protection and greater African ownership of the industrial opportunities being created by the green economy.
That position emerged from the recent ITUC-Africa convening in Nairobi, Kenya, where African workers’ representatives examined the continent’s contribution to energy sovereignty, green industrialisation and the development of a common African position ahead of COP31.
For ITUC-Africa General Secretary, Akhator Joel Odigie, the discussions produced three principal strategic conclusions: one, the need to “restore and reclaim” public energy as part of Africa’s development agenda; two, stronger engagement with the World Bank, IMF and African Development Bank without abandoning public-sector approaches; and three, a commitment to work more collaboratively with African governments.
At the heart of the discussion was a fundamental question about how Africa can industrialise when access to affordable and reliable energy remains such a persistent challenge.
Odigie said ITUC-Africa’s position had become clearer that the continent cannot achieve industrialisation on the basis of privatised energy alone.
That argument is particularly significant at a time when Africa is being encouraged to embrace a green transition while many of its countries continue to struggle with energy poverty, weak industrial capacity and limited fiscal space.
The labour movement is therefore pressing for stronger climate financing, compensation for communities already suffering the consequences of climate change, implementation of the just-transition mechanism, skills and technology transfer, and greater support for African adaptation and mitigation efforts.
However, for the unions, the transition cannot only be measured by how quickly economies move away from fossil fuels. The more immediate concern is what happens to the people whose livelihoods depend on the industries and economic activities being transformed.
Odigie stressed that just transition must remain centred on workers, jobs and human needs rather than becoming primarily a private-sector financing concept. The transition, he argued, must produce decent jobs, protect workers’ rights, provide opportunities for skills development and ensure adequate social protection.
That concern goes beyond workers in formal employment. Informal workers, contractors, women and young people must also be included in transition planning and provided with appropriate education, skills and social protection.
This is an important distinction because much of the public conversation around the green transition tends to focus on investment, technology and emissions targets, while the people whose lives and livelihoods will be directly affected can easily become an afterthought.
The same concern about African ownership runs through the debate over critical minerals.
Africa possesses many of the minerals that are increasingly important to the global energy transition. Despite that, much of the continent’s mineral wealth continues to leave its shores in raw or minimally processed form.
Odigie pointed to the African Mining Vision developed by the African Union, and its emphasis on mineral beneficiation, arguing that African countries should process more of their minerals at home rather than continue exporting raw materials and importing finished products at much higher value.
He also called for stronger negotiations around technology and skills transfer and, where necessary, a review of mineral concessions.
The underlying issue is one that Africa has confronted for decades but which the energy transition has given renewed urgency: having the resources is not the same as capturing the value created from those resources.
If the global green economy is going to depend heavily on Africa’s critical minerals, then African countries will have to negotiate not only for revenues from extraction, but also for the industries, skills, technology and jobs that can be built around those resources.
The Nairobi meeting also brought another actor into sharper focus: the media.
Throughout the discussions, the role of journalism in advancing the labour movement’s climate agenda repeatedly came up. It was against this backdrop that the Federation of African Journalists launched A Practical Guide to Reporting Just Transition, designed to help African journalists and newsrooms better understand and report on climate justice, climate finance, renewable energy, workers’ rights and information integrity.
Odigie welcomed the initiative and challenged the labour movement itself to engage the media more systematically.
Trade unions, he argued, should not wait until conferences or major events to speak to journalists. They need to build strategic and sustained relationships with the media and allow journalists to understand the substance of their work so that the issues being raised by workers can receive informed and consistent public attention.
It was a point that resonated beyond the launch of the FAJ guide. A good policy position that remains largely inside conference rooms cannot generate public pressure for change. For the labour movement, visibility is therefore not basically a communications exercise; it is part of the struggle to influence public policy.
The timing is important as the movement prepares for COP31 in Antalya from 9–20 November, 2026. The UN climate process has described the conference as implementation-focused, with energy transition, green industrial transformation, sustainable agriculture and food systems, climate finance and resilience among the priority areas.
For ITUC-Africa, however, the test will ultimately be whether the priorities being articulated by African workers translate into concrete commitments and financing.
Odigie said the labour movement would regard COP31 as successful if there were concrete commitments to financing its demands.
That puts the focus squarely on the difficult part of the climate conversation: moving from declarations to implementation.
Africa has no shortage of climate commitments, development strategies and policy documents. What remains less certain is whether the resources, technology, skills, industrial capacity and political will will be available to turn those commitments into changes that workers and communities can actually feel.
The Nairobi discussions therefore leave ITUC-Africa with a significant task ahead of COP31: to convert a broad labour position into a sufficiently strong continental negotiating position, while ensuring that the green transition is not reduced to a change in energy sources but becomes, in practical terms, a transition towards better jobs, stronger social protection, greater energy security and greater African economic sovereignty.
Note: The author is the Chairperson of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) Working Group on Climate Change.
