Many MindedA just transition mechanism takes shape ahead of COP31 in Antalya
At COP30 in Belém, parties agreed to set up a just transition mechanism, widely called the Belém-Antalya mechanism, or BAM. The COP30 decision asked parties to work through the following year on a plan to get it started. Launching it is now one of the key expected outcomes of COP31 in Antalya, Turkey. Civil society first called the idea the Belém action mechanism and renamed it after the COP30 result. The agreed text itself says only "mechanism".
The road here was long. The just transition idea goes back to the 1980s, when US labour unions allied with environmental justice groups. The 2015 Paris Agreement preamble mentions a just transition of the workforce and decent work. A work programme was agreed at COP27, but talks closed without agreement at COP29. A June 2025 Bonn draft listed options from a toolbox to a global platform. Early in COP30, the G77 and China proposed a mechanism offering technical assistance, international cooperation and partnerships. Norway, the UK and other developed countries first opposed it, citing duplication and extra funding needs. The EU suggested an action plan instead.
It matters because the clean-energy shift will create winners and losers. A working mechanism could help move support to workers and communities that would otherwise bear the costs. That would make the transition fairer, and so more politically durable.
Watch the design fight. Five NGOs have proposed a steering body, a knowledge arm and an implementation arm. Proposals from DCJ and the Grantham Institute at LSE also have three functions. None of these is agreed. Developed and developing countries still disagree on functions, purpose and financing, and that continued at the Bonn talks in June 2026. The UNFCCC also faces a funding gap after the US withdrawal and reduced or delayed contributions, which has led to cancelled events and unfilled posts. The mechanism's exact details remain vague.
Source: Carbon Brief