For those who imagined a new, peaceful, and prosperous post-war world 80 years ago, the world would be unrecognisable in its current state. Many leaders, however, still believe in international cooperation. But they also want the UN reimagined. 

As climate impacts intensify and traditional development aid becomes more uncertain, the African Development Fund’s 17th replenishment signals a shift toward African-owned, adaptation-focused climate finance at scale.

In a memorandum sent to heads of departments and agencies, President Donald Trump announced the US’s exit from and end of funding for at least 66 intergovernmental organisations, citing non-alignment with the interests of the United States. 

The decision follows Trump’s order last February to officials in his administration to conduct a review of all international organisations, conventions, and treaties supported or funded by the United States. 

The International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, to be held in Santa Marta, Colombia, this April, is one of a kind. It is the first intergovernmental forum that complements the Paris Agreement and the UN climate process. 

2026 is expected to be the year of accelerated growth in renewable energy adoption and investments globally, driven by falling costs, advancements in battery and storage technology, smart grids, increased finance, and favourable regulations in many countries around the world.  

The just transition has been one of the most closely followed debates in climate talks in recent years. In a historic outcome at COP30 in Belem, Brazil, last year, world nations agreed to establish a mechanism to support equitable and inclusive shifts to low-carbon economies globally.   

Here’s what to look for in the Just Transition debate in 2026.

If 2025 was sensational, 2026 is on the cards to rival it on every metric. In this piece, we examine how some of the major developments, including rising climate impacts, the renewable energy charge, ongoing conflicts, foreign policy, and global trade, could shape this year’s climate diplomacy.  

For years, climate politics has been defined by promises that rarely became a reality. In 2025, this began to change.

This was a year when outcomes mattered more than optics. Courts, summits and data points distinguished 2025 as the year when climate action started to take shape. Notably, a landmark legal opinion on climate culpability delivered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July put governments on notice that climate inaction now carries real legal consequences.

We began this year with the desire to protect the crucial milestones made by climate multilateralism over the last 30 years by demanding more for our planet. 

On the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, we had hoped that world nations would finally agree on a roadmap to bring an end to the destructive era of fossil fuels and put forward ambitious emission reduction targets.

The national climate plans submitted this year, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, sadly tell a different story.   

In 2025, shifting power did not only happen in negotiation rooms or through policy, it also happened in the headlines.

These thought pieces helped to push African perspectives into public discourse and global climate conversations.

As UNEA-7 closed in Nairobi, a stark reminder echoed through the halls: the world outside negotiations cannot afford delay. Behind the resolutions and declarations lie hard political choices, contested priorities, and unanswered questions about who global environmental governance is really serving.

Shocking details have emerged on how the US and allies deliberately scuttled plans to adopt a key UN report on the state of the global environment, citing its ‘‘uncomfortable’’ scientific findings.  

The report, titled ‘‘A Future we Choose’’, warns that following current fossil fuel-powered development pathways will bring ‘‘catastrophic climate change’’, devastate nature and biodiversity and ‘‘debilitating land degradation and desertification.’’

To many people, climate change adaptation is a complex, technical, and abstract concept. While it has risen to the top of multilateral climate negotiations in recent years, many people still struggle to understand its application in real life.  

To the average African, the standard definition provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) hasn’t improved the understanding.   

But away from climate negotiation jargon, what is adaptation? What does it mean to communities at the lowest level of society where the sting of climate change is most felt?

The UNEA is the world’s highest-level decision-making body for environmental matters. Its membership is universal, comprising all the 193 UN Member States.  

Fronted by Colombia, the draft resolution calls for an Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group to identify options for international instruments, whether binding or not, for coordinated global action on the environmentally sound management of minerals and metals with a view to reducing environmental impacts.

COP30, billed as the ‘adaptation COP’, was a crucial moment to rebuild trust in multilateralism generally, and adaptation, more specifically. It was the first time that adaptation would finally take center stage after years of living in mitigation’s shadow.  

When countries met at COP1 in Berlin, Germany, in 1995, the goal was to address the climate crisis by making new commitments and strengthening existing ones. Thirty years later, this spirit of committing to a just, fair, and secure climate future carries on.

If wealthy nations are guilty of triggering the climate crisis, they are twice as guilty of doing little to combat the breakdown while frustrating ambitious action. 

When the Week One draft on just transition at COP30 recognised the role of green minerals—and the environmental and social risks in their supply chains—it sparked real optimism. Negotiators were finally connecting just transition pathways with protecting natural ecosystems.

But just a week later, the final “Global Mutirão’’ agreement dropped all references to minerals, extinguishing that hope

The High Court in Kenya has declared sections of the country’s Seed and Plant Varieties Act unconstitutional. This section of the law criminalised farmers for saving, sharing or exchanging unregistered seeds.

In 2016, amendments to the Seed and Plant Varieties Act introduced costly registration requirements and imposed penalties of up to KES 1,000,000 or jail terms for anyone handling uncertified seed. This effectively made the informal seed systems used for generations by the majority of Kenyan farmers, particularly smallholders who sustained Kenya’s agriculture and food security, illegal.

Established at the UN climate talks in Belem, Brazil, the Just Transition Mechanism is the first major win for workers, communities and for climate, as the global transition from dirty fuels accelerates into the future.