Whose Transition? COP31 Update #4
The communities that supply the clean energy transition asked COP31 for a say in it.
“Compensation is not the same as consent,” an Indigenous advocate from Indonesia told a room in Antalya on Thursday. She comes from a region where nickel mining for the battery supply chain is expanding onto Indigenous land. She was one of many people from mining districts, river valleys, fishing communities and forests who described what the move away from fossil fuels looks like where they live.
The minerals in our phones, cars and solar panels come largely from places like these, and some of them are home to United Methodist congregations, from the Philippines to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since Brazil presented its global roadmap on Tuesday, governments here have been discussing how to move away from fossil fuels. On Thursday, the communities at the other end of that transition asked to be heard. Faith leaders, Indigenous leaders and UN agencies kept returning to the same test: a transition is just only if the people closest to it help shape it and share in what it brings.
Faith communities and the just transition
The World Council of Churches, of which The United Methodist Church is a member, co-hosted a side event with ecumenical partners asking how the transition can be both fast and fair. Rev. Rose Bangura of the All Africa Conference of Churches said that in Africa, where many still lack electricity, climate change is a matter of life and death. Finance should come as grants and reach local communities, she said, and faith communities, with their roots in villages and relationships with women and young people, should help plan and carry out the work. Fr. Aloysius Wonga of Franciscans International described geothermal projects on Indonesia’s Flores Island that communities had no right to refuse, costing them water, land and sacred sites.
Elena Cedillo of the Lutheran World Federation said human rights must be the foundation of every transition, and that the first questions are whose rights are protected and whose voice is missing. She added that no transition can be just while fossil fuels are still subsidized. Jocabed Solano, a negotiator for Panama, spoke of the Indigenous communities guarding forests and islands under growing pressure.
In the negotiating rooms. Talks continue on the just transition mechanism agreed at COP30. Maria Cristina Cifuentes, a lead negotiator for Colombia, speaking at the faith event, said some countries want the existing work programme to serve as an umbrella with the mechanism as its operational arm. Colombia’s priority is a mechanism that connects countries with existing funds and partners and makes clear what support, such as technology transfer, they can expect.
Finance came up throughout the day. At a separate faith press conference, Christian Aid pointed to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, which received more than 170 requests worth about $2.8 billion in its first funding round, against $342 million set aside: roughly one dollar for every eight requested. Consent, not compensation
At two sessions organized by Indigenous Peoples’ and human rights groups, community leaders from Asia, Africa and Latin America described land taken, water polluted, and those who object treated as criminals. Diel Mochire Mwenge, who defends Indigenous rights in a conflict-affected region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said communities that protect the forest for everyone receive nothing in return, and that leaders who guard their land now live in fear.
A river defender from southern Chile described a fifth hydroelectric dam now under construction on her community’s river, built without their say. A community advocate from Zambia described a 2025 acid spill at a copper mine that polluted the Kafue River, a major source of drinking water, and households displaced for mines that employ only a few hundred local people. An advocate for fishing communities in the Philippines said floating solar projects covering about 2,000 hectares are planned on Laguna Lake, where thousands of small-scale fishers make their living.
Joan Carling, Executive Director of Indigenous Peoples Rights International, set out what meaningful participation requires: a place in national transition plans from the start, a share in the benefits of projects communities consent to, and accountability for companies that violate their rights. Jana Uemura of the Global Forest Coalition launched a map of gender-just solutions already working on the ground, at realsolutionsmap.org. “A transition cannot be called ‘just’ simply because it is presented as ‘green,’” she said, noting that only about 0.1% of global climate finance supports projects that bring together climate action and women’s rights.
Mothers and newborns
A session hosted by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) looked at how climate change affects pregnancy and childbirth. Florence Bauer, UNFPA’s regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, cited research from sub-Saharan Africa showing that extreme heat in the final week of pregnancy is linked to a 34% higher risk of stillbirth or newborn death. Floods cut off roads to clinics. Most of these deaths, she said, are preventable.
A UNFPA study in Madagascar showed how this plays out. During floods, the cost of canoe crossings to reach care rose eightfold, and 68% of people surveyed named transport costs as a barrier to health care. Families had to choose between buying food and paying to reach a clinic. Emergency shelters were often unsafe for women and girls, and 75% of respondents reported a rise in domestic violence. Kiribati’s Minister for Women, Youth, Sport and Social Affairs, Ruth Cross Kwansing, said each of her country’s islands has a single medical assistant for everyone, and called for grant-based finance that reaches remote communities: “Climate finance delayed is protection denied.”
There has been progress. UNFPA’s new review of national climate plans, presented at the session, found that the share addressing sexual and reproductive health doubled from 22% to 44% since 2023. Plans addressing gender-based violence rose from 15 to 47 of 118. Few of them, however, come with funding attached.
Americans at COP31
For the second year in a row, the US federal government has sent no delegation to the UN climate talks. More than 120 American governors, mayors, state officials and business leaders came instead, under the America Is All In coalition chaired by former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. Their message to other countries was simple: the American transition is continuing.
On Thursday, the coalition held a full day of events. It launched America’s Better Pathway, a report on how US states and cities are cutting emissions and what that means for jobs and health, with former UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham spoke on a panel on local action and global partnerships, and California Governor Gavin Newsom closed the day. America Is All In, the US Climate Alliance and Climate Mayors issued a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to the Paris Agreement’s goals.
The coalition says the states and cities committed to those goals represent more than half of the US population and about 60% of the national economy. More than 20 states have set legal targets for 100% clean electricity; readers in the United States may want to check whether theirs is one of them. For partners abroad, the delegation’s presence was a reminder that climate commitments in the United States do not rest on Washington alone.
Where the church comes in
Churches are often among the first to respond when disaster strikes, feeding families after floods and sheltering neighbors who have lost their homes. At a faith press conference, Regina Banks, Director of the Lutheran Office for Public Policy in California, named the harder part: “We cannot be expected to minister endlessly to the consequences of the injustice while remaining silent about its causes.”
Thursday’s testimonies give that work a concrete shape. Many of the places speakers described are home to United Methodist congregations, and local churches can be among the first to stand with communities when land and water are lost. Congregations elsewhere can ask where the minerals in the products they buy come from and whether the communities there gave their consent. They can support churches that accompany those communities, and press their governments for grant-based finance that reaches mothers, fishers and farmers directly, not only national treasuries.
Follow our updates throughout COP31, share them with your congregation, and hold in prayer those working to turn commitments into action.
