In November 2024, Climate Strategies, in collaboration with The Department for Planning and Development of Trinidad and Tobago and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), hosted an official COP29 side event focused on the emerging Just Resilience agenda.
The session opened with remarks from Adriana Chavarría-Flores of Climate Strategies, who set the stage by highlighting the importance of integrating equity into adaptation planning. To delve deeper into this new and growing concept, you can explore our scoping note on Just Resilience.
Keynote speaker Kishan Kumarsingh, Head of Trinidad and Tobago’s Multilateral Environmental Agreements Unit, provided context on how Just Resilience is being integrated into policy at the national level. As an oil and gas exporter, Trinidad and Tobago faces a unique set of challenges. While the oil sector directly employs only 5% of the workforce, industries like agriculture and tourism still face significant risks from climate change impacts. To find out more about Trinidad’s energy landscape and strategies for Just Transitions, you can read our in-country briefing produced as part of our Policy Dialogue on Just Energy Transitions.
Katherine Brown, a Research Fellow at SEI, provided more insight into the academic frameworks behind Just Resilience, emphasising that climate change doesn’t impact everyone equally. Citing new research developed by Climate Strategies and SEI, she noted that adaptation measures can often worsen existing inequalities if they are not carefully planned. With this in mind, she highlighted that as Just Transitions aim to ensure workers aren’t left behind as industries change, Just Resilience similarly calls for climate adaptation to be inclusive and fair as plans are implemented.
Our panel discussion featured Yamikani Idrissa Idriss from Malawi, Mbulaheni Mbodi from South Africa, and Satya Tripathi & Jiten Yumnam from India, who offered perspectives on how justice can be integrated into climate adaptation strategies.
In an overview of adaptation efforts in Malawi, Idriss called for better data and transition indicators when developing and executing plans for resilience. Mbodi reflected on his experience in South Africa’s Presidential Climate Commission, which has worked to incorporate procedural and distributive justice into national climate policies. With these experiences in mind, he stressed the importance of adapting engagements according to the cultural and linguistic norms of the communities that researchers and policymakers are navigating. Throughout Tripathi’s interventions, he emphasised the urgency of the climate crisis and reminded attendees of the unequal distribution of historic emissions between the Global North and South. Yumnam, drawing from his work in India, underscored the importance of grassroots, community-driven solutions, particularly when facing multinational corporations which may benefit from climate-induced damages.
During the Q&A, the audience sparked conversations on the practical side of building resilience into the policy agenda. Satya Tripathi suggested looking at local, low-tech solutions that are already making a difference on the ground. Mbulaheni Mbodi echoed this, stressing that adaptation shouldn’t become just another market opportunity for large companies and organisations but an empathetic, people-centred process. He called for honesty in climate action, arguing that adaptation should never be about making a profit at the expense of people’s lives.
This side event reinforced the idea that climate negotiations and policies must be about more than reducing emissions; they should be fair, inclusive, and grounded in the real-world experiences of those who are already living with the impacts of climate change.