We Cannot Build a Just, Climate-resilient Future on Unjust Systems
Climate reparations and compensation as restoration are a matter of justice and accountability for historical and ongoing climate damage. | STOCK
A just transition for adaptation (JTfA), especially in Africa, must do more than simply prepare for climate impacts.
It must confront the underlying systems of extraction, structural dependencies, and exclusion that have shaped vulnerability and underdevelopment across the continent. A just transition for adaptation, therefore, draws on an extensive interrogation of the continent’s history and the present.
Our new report, ‘‘A Just Transition for Adaptation’’, unravels the structural deficiencies that perpetuate vulnerability and constrain the continent from being climate resilient. It must demand a bold shift in how we think, talk about, finance, and implement adaptation so we can move beyond where we are now and get to where is necessary.
READ our new report, A Just Transition for Adaptation
Where do we want to go?
A just transition for adaptation is an opportunity to assert and reimagine a new vision positioning people, livelihoods, prosperity, and nature at the centre. This demands a bold systemic shift.
Defining a just transition for adaptation in Africa
This is a systemic, justice-centred transformation of how climate adaptation is planned, governed, financed and implemented — one that addresses the structural drivers of climate vulnerability, not only its symptoms.
A JTfA requires:
Recognitional, procedural, distributive, and restorative justice across the adaptation policy cycle
African leadership and adaptation sovereignty
Grant-based, rights-based finance aligned with historical responsibility; and
Integration of Indigenous and local knowledge systems with scientific knowledge on equal terms
The report, A Just Transition for Adaptation, calls for abandoning neocolonial mindsets and embracing Africa and the Global South as active leaders, innovators, and rights holders. | STOCK
The aim is to transition to systems and structures that protect people, respect rights and diverse knowledge systems, restore ecosystems, and reduce inequalities. These must enable adaptation that is transformative, redistributive, and accepted as a global responsibility, while being locally determined and driven. It calls for abandoning neocolonial mindsets and embracing Africa and the Global South as active leaders, innovators, and rights holders.
These aspirations align closely with and uphold the African Union (AU) visionary Agenda 2063, which foresees an ‘integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own people and representing a dynamic force in the international arena. A JTfA can offer a critical pathway to realising that future.
These ideas draw on Africa’s rich intellectual heritage and IK, regional diversity, and lived experiences, in addition to insights from our interviewees, extensive research referenced for this report, Agenda 2063, and the Just Transition: A Climate, Energy and Development Vision for Africa report.
The key principles and components for a just transition for adaptation include:
Recognitional justice
Decolonising and democratising global climate governance and climate finance mechanisms means confronting climate injustices where Africa bears disproportionate impacts yet remains marginalised in global decision making. It calls for inclusive structures that ensure equal voice and agency for African actors in shaping climate solutions that transcend mere survival to foster long-term prosperity and resilience.
Procedural justice
Inclusion and meaningful participation of marginalised groups begins with recognising and responding to the differentiated vulnerabilities of women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, and other marginalised groups. This links to, and must be a core dimension of, adaptation sovereignty.
Distributive justice
Equitable resource distribution based on need and climate risk is a matter of justice. Resources must not be allocated to countries based on institutional capacity, wealth, or political influence. Internationally, this means scaling up grant-based adaptation finance aligned with historical responsibility, the CBDR-RC principle, and equity principles under the UNFCCC, without imposing conditionalities or deepening already burdensome debt.
Restorative justice
Climate reparations and compensation as restoration are a matter of justice and accountability for historical and ongoing climate damage. They are not aid. Restoring harm that climate impacts inflict on communities requires compensation through grant-based, grant-equivalent support, debt cancellation, legal mechanisms, recognition of Africa’s unique climate circumstances, and equitable access to, and ownership of, technologies.
How do we get there? Pathways and leverage points
Achieving a JTfA requires pathways that translate justice principles into concrete outcomes. Insights from our research and interviews reveal that the four justice dimensions are deeply interconnected rather than siloed. Pathways for change must, therefore, operate and engage with those four dimensions holistically across all scales, ranging from local to global, to ensure inclusive, ongoing, and fair adaptation.
Knowledge justice, inclusive governance with a strong emphasis on bottom-up mobilisation at the national level, and resource redistribution and compensation emerge as critical pathways for advancing a Just Transition for Adaptation for Africa.