African trade unions have set out a bold set of demands for COP31, insisting that climate action must advance social justice alongside environmental sustainability and place workers at the centre of the global energy transition.
The African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), representing about 18 million working men and women in 52 African countries, said decarbonisation must be accompanied by decent work, democratic control and a fair distribution of costs and benefits, rather than treating workers as secondary considerations in climate policy.
In a statement issued in Lomé, Togo, on 9th November 2026 by its General Secretary, Akhator Joel Odigie, the organisation called on Parties to the UNFCCC, African governments, developed countries, international financial institutions and all energy-transition partners to translate its demands into funded, time-bound commitments with transparent reporting and full trade union participation.
At the heart of the demands is a call for universal, affordable and meaningful energy access through public energy sovereignty and accountable utilities.
ITUC-Africa said access to modern energy must be recognised as a developmental right and a public obligation, and warned that the COP31 Presidency’s target to raise electricity’s share of global final energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035 must be matched by reliable access in Africa, not treated as a substitute for it.
It further insisted that strategic energy planning, transmission, distribution and universal-service mandates must remain under public and democratic control, with public utilities recapitalised and equipped to deliver reliable services.
The unions also demanded climate finance, loss and damage funding, debt justice and progressive public resources, urging developed countries to provide new, additional, predictable and adequate finance principally through grants and highly concessional public finance.
They called for adequate, grant-based finance for Loss and Damage, including sustained contributions to the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage, and said debt relief and direct capitalisation of public energy systems are indispensable where debt service is crowding out investment in energy, public services, adaptation and social protection.
On workers’ rights, ITUC-Africa called for COP31 to renew and strengthen the UNFCCC Just Transition Work Programme, with the ILO Just Transition Guidelines as the central reference, and to operationalise a Just Transition Mechanism to deliver technical assistance and practical support for nationally determined transition pathways.
It insisted that tripartite social dialogue between governments, trade unions and employers must shape transition policies, and that closures must not proceed without funded arrangements for replacement employment, worker protection, reskilling and local economic diversification.
The organisation further demanded green industrialisation and critical-minerals sovereignty, arguing that Africa’s energy transition must move beyond raw-material extraction towards beneficiation, local processing, component manufacturing, technology transfer and African participation in higher-value green supply chains.
It said energy investment must be linked to domestic manufacturing, local procurement, apprenticeships, skills programmes, unionised decent work and reliable power for African enterprises, with binding labour, environmental and community safeguards across mineral and renewable-energy value chains.
ITUC-Africa concluded by calling for the institutionalisation of democratic governance and labour representation, with trade unions given formal representation in national energy planning, tariff and regulatory processes, just-transition commissions, climate-finance governance, COP delegations and African Group of Negotiators technical processes.
“Africa’s transition must be shaped with workers and communities, not imposed upon them,” the statement said, urging governments and partners to act together to deliver universal energy access, decent work and climate justice.
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(Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie)
