COP30: For the first time since the start of the COPs, Afro-descendant populations are included in the Just Energy Transition Program
"In a historic achievement, Afro-Descendants and Indigenous Peoples’ prior consultation are included for the first time in the UN Climate Conference", 22 November 2025
...For the first time since the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COPs), Afro-descendant populations are included in the Just Energy Transition Program, approved this Saturday (22). The document also mentions territorial rights, prior, free, and informed consultation, as well as recognizing isolated Indigenous Peoples.
The text states that it is the right of Indigenous Peoples to obtain their free, prior, and informed consent, in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Furthermore, it stipulates that a just transition must respect and promote “the internationally recognized collective and individual rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the right to self-determination, and recognize the rights and protections of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and in initial contact , in accordance with relevant international human rights instruments and principles”...
Tatiana Oliveira, international strategy leader at WWF-Brazil, says that COP30 was a historic moment, a watershed moment. She demonstrates the emotion that civil society felt in celebrating the recognition of the populations most affected by climate change in the conference text.
In UN climate events, Afro-descendant populations had already been included in the preliminary discussions in June, during the Bonn Conference on Climate Change, and now, for the first time, they are contemplated in the final document of COP30...
On the other hand, the final text on just energy transition removed the mention of the impacts of mining on the low-carbon economy that countries need to implement. Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendant populations were especially concerned about this point, because their territories are constantly threatened by the concentration of many minerals considered strategic. Without reference to the damage caused by mineral exploration, the assessment is that these communities become even more vulnerable...