Strong environmental laws and systems can contribute to just transition for a greener future by protecting rights, involving communities and ensuring justice, according to a new report.
The report released by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlighted environmental rule of law as a key foundation for achieving a just transition and says that effective laws and institutions, public participation, access to justice and fair financing can help ensure that the vulnerable groups are not left behind.
The report has been released while countries continue negotiations on a just transition. It was one of the most politically sensitive agenda at the Bonn Climate Conference in June 2026.
According to the report, just transition, in the environmental context, refers to a fair, inclusive and rights based transformation towards environmentally and socially sustainable and resilient economies and societies that respects environmental rule of law and ensures no one is left behind in addressing environmental challenges across all sectors.
While the need for just transition is clear, realising it is rarely straightforward. Making just transition work in practice is complicated, nuanced and situation-dependent, the report cautions.
With examples from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, ECOWAS, European Union countries, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, South Africa, Tuvalu and the United Kingdom, the report highlighted both progress and challenges in implementing just transition measures.
For instance, in South Korea, the Korean Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth for Coping with Climate Crisis, places just transition at the centre of its climate policy approach. It includes just transition as a key principle for protecting workers, farmers, small and medium entrepreneurs in regions or industries that could suffer direct or indirect damage in the course of transition to a carbon-neutral society.
The report appreciates Slovenia's Long-term Climate Strategy to 2050, adopted in July 2021. It said that the strategy places inclusivity and justice at the heart of the transition to a climate-neutral society.
According to the report, just transition policies in climate and energy laws can address impacts across sectors beyond energy, including agriculture, biodiversity and water. For example, South Africa’s 2020 National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy recognises nature-based solutions as an important part of a just transition.
However, when governance for a just transition is often fragmented, the new coordination efforts are showing promise. In India, Jharkhand’s Task Force on Sustainable Just Transition brings together 17 government departments to develop policies on energy transition, climate resilience and the protection of vulnerable groups, including Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes.
There are challenges in translating just transition principles into practice, said the authors of the report, citing Brazil’s 2022 Just Energy Transition law as an example. With an aim to support the coal region of Santa Catarina during the phase-out of coal power by 2040, it faced legal challenges over provisions supporting thermal coal plants. Critics argued that these measures weakened the goals of a just transition.
The report highlighted land rights, community participation and access to natural resources as important elements of a fair transition. Scotland’s land reform efforts are cited as an example of how empowering communities, through land ownership, can support sustainable development.
Environmental human rights defenders (EHRD) play a critical role in protecting communities affected by environmental harm and ensuring that just transition policies are rights-based, inclusive and sustainable. But EHRDs face growing threats as conflicts emerge over land use for renewable energy projects, including wind, solar and hydropower, experts warned in the report.
They highlighted the significance of gender equality in climate action. More than 80 countries endorsed the Gender Responsive Just Transitions and Climate Action Partnership at COP28, the report showed. The alliance is committed to protecting the rights of women and girls, promoting gender-responsive climate action and supporting economic opportunities
On finance, the report noted that funding remains a major challenge for just transition efforts. So, green bonds, carbon credits, blended finance and direct revenue-sharing with affected communities are among the emerging solutions recommended by the report. It also called on the international financial institutions to strengthen human rights and environmental safeguards to ensure that transition finance reaches communities most in need.
Released around the first anniversary of the ICJ's landmark advisory opinion on the Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change, the report said litigation over a "just transition" is expanding across national, regional and international courts. Increasingly, climate cases are moving beyond emissions reduction targets to examine how the costs and benefits of the transition are shared among workers, communities and future generations, it added.
The authors cited the case of China, where courts have tried to balance economic development and environmental protection while deciding cases related to the green transition. The country has set up special environmental courts and issued guidelines for handling such cases. The government has also explored the establishment of innovative mechanisms for evaluation of transition projects and built a multi-dispute resolution mechanism.
Countries must establish comprehensive legal frameworks aligned with global climate commitments, the experts stressed in the report. They urged businesses to embed human rights principles into their transition strategies.
UNEP also called on the financial institutions to ensure that climate investments support vulnerable communities instead of deepening the inequalities.
"As UNEP continues to work on addressing the three planetary environmental crises – the crisis of climate change, the crisis of nature, land and biodiversity loss, and the crisis of pollution and waste, the grounding of just transition in the environmental rule of law could potentially set us forth on the path of systemic solutions anchored
in the strength of legal systems," said Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Director of the Law Division, UNEP in her foreword for the report.