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Wednesday
12 November 2025
Welcome
to the
Top
of the COP
daily newsletter, a recap of the day’s Climate
Action Agenda highlights, brought to you by the
Climate High-Level Champions.
As
COP 30 kicks off Day 3 in Belém, the conversation
turns squarely toward the human side of the
transition – the workers, educators, storytellers,
and innovators shaping the new climate economy.
Today’s announcements come from Axis 5 of the
Climate Action agenda which seeks to “foster human
and social development.”
The
focus begins with skills and education. According
to LinkedIN’s 2025
Climate Talent Stocktake,
workers with green skills are 47%
more likely to be hired
than the global average. Green jobs span all
sectors – from manufacturing, to the creative
industries and media, to employment in renewables
- which has surged to 16
million, up 18% in just one year.
Nearly 60% of
countries
now plan to embed “just transition” measures like
green skills training, social protection, and
funding for vulnerable communities into their
climate plans.
“We
can’t solve the climate crisis without getting the
right people into the right roles and right now,
we’re leaving too much talent on the sidelines,”
said Kristy
Drutman, COP Impact Maker and founder of the Green
Jobs Board,
which connects over 150,000 job seekers with 700+
climate-focused organizations.
Drutman
recalls watching people in the Philippines weave
plastic bags into purses and fishermen teaching
sustainable practices passed down through
generations. “These weren't people with
environmental degrees or access to ‘green
jobs’...That taught me that climate work isn't
just for people who fit a certain mould, it's for
everyone, and we need everyone.”
The
cultural cost and opportunity of climate
change
Yet
the imbalance extends beyond skills to the very
systems that hold communities together. UNESCO
warns that one in three natural heritage sites and
one in six cultural sites are already threatened
by climate change. Rising seas have damaged the
Moai statues of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) while
floods have damaged over
130
cultural sites
in China. When culture erodes and livelihoods and
languages disappear, the cost of climate change
can no longer be measured in dollars
alone.
But
culture can be a powerful driver of solutions too.
From sustainable fashion to climate storytelling,
green skills are increasingly needed. The creative
industries – film, design, music, media, art –
have the power to attract millions of people who
care deeply about the planet and want to apply
their craft to mobilize public imagination and
help people see themselves in the
transition.
Today’s
featured initiatives are a reimagining of what
climate action looks like when people stand at its
centre. From upskilling women and youth to
safeguarding cultural heritage and rethinking the
stories that shape our collective imagination,
this is what a just transition looks like in
motion.
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Countries
Back Global Initiative to Upskill Workers for
Rising Green Economy
The
Global
Initiative for Jobs & Skills for the New
Economy
lands today – a coordinated effort to prevent a
looming talent crisis that threatens to derail the
net-zero transition.
Led
by GIZ,
the Germany-based development agency; the
World
Resources Institute,
Systemiq,
the Ares
Charitable Foundation,
and the NDC
Partnership,
the initiative will help countries embed workforce
and skills development into their national climate
plans while mobilizing public and private finance
through shared investment mechanisms and climate
funds. By 2028, it aims to unite over 20
countries
and 40
global institutions
in an ‘Engagement Community on Jobs & Skills
for the New Economy.’ Initial country studies in
Kenya,
Pakistan,
and Brazil
are already identifying opportunities in sectors
from renewable energy and transport to green
agriculture and low-carbon
construction.
“A
people-centred transition is both a moral
imperative and an economic necessity,” said Jochen
Flasbarth, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry
for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature
Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany. “Social
protection, opportunities for retraining and job
transition policies are key to ensuring that
climate ambition remains both politically and
socially sustainable”.
This
new global drive follows a year of groundwork
since COP 29, including the first comprehensive
global
assessment of
the transition’s implications for jobs, skills,
and social impacts.
Why
this matters:
The
timing is urgent: At the current pace, the world
will face a shortfall of nearly one-fifth
of the green talent needed
by 2030. By 2050, that gap could swell to more
than 100%, leaving employers without half the
workforce required to drive the net zero
transition. Green jobs are booming across sectors.
The construction sector now sees one in
five job postings
demanding green skills, while technology,
information, and media saw the fastest growth in
demand: jobs requiring green skills jumped 60%
between 2023 and 2024, driven by AI
expansion.
Plan
to Empower Women and Youth to Lead a Just
Transition Gathers Pace
A
new
plan to
accelerate skills development for
women and youth is building on programmes already
underway across Africa, Asia-Pacific, and the
Americas. It seeks to scale up existing efforts
such as The Green Jobs for Youth Pact which is
piloting green skills programs in Latin America
and running capacity-building projects in Cuba,
Madagascar, and Senegal. Additionally, UNIDO’s
Global Cleantech Innovation programme supports
women entrepreneurs across eight countries, and
the Global Network of Sustainable Energy Centres
is building the capacity of women and youth
through its network of regional sustainable energy
centres.
The
new plan spearheaded by the International Labour
Organization (ILO) and the UN Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO), with support
from partners
including Care About Climate, and Student
Energy,
consolidates these successes under a single
framework and scales them with measurable targets.
By
2030, it aims to equip 3,000
women and youth
with future-ready green skills, support
6,000
youth-led clean energy and climate
initiatives,
and facilitate 500
job placements, mentorships, and
internships.
It also seeks to integrate gender- and
youth-responsive measures into at
least three national or regional policy
frameworks
and reach 50,000
people
through advocacy and storytelling
campaigns.
Speaking
from Belém, Nigar Arpadarai, COP 29 Climate High
Level Champion said: “We
need to close the green skills gap to give young
people the best possible future. Education,
empowerment, and decision-making power – that's
what we owe them, and that's what will drive this
transition forward."
Culture
Takes the Stage: Mobilizing the Power of
Culture
Culture
– from heritage and the arts, films, TV to
advertising and media – has the power to make
climate action not just necessary, but desirable,
memorable, and shared.
From
heritage sites to global advertising campaigns,
culture is stepping into the spotlight as one of
the most powerful drivers of transformation.
Across COP 30, this shift is becoming visible
through new initiatives that connect creativity,
identity, and resilience
– embedding climate action in the stories that
define who we are and what we value.
Three
key announcements demonstrate this trend:
- Brazil
is spearheading a global effort to integrate
cultural heritage into National Adaptation Plans
(NAPs),
with partners such as UNESCO
and the International
Council on Monuments and Sites
(ICOMOS).
This initiative is designed to protect the
traditions, knowledge, and assets of vulnerable
communities while strengthening local
resilience, for example, through mapping and
protecting heritage sites.
- The
Heritage
Adapts Coalition,
led by Preserving
Legacies
and supported by the National
Geographic Society,
unveiled plans for 3,000 cultural heritage sites
and practices to implement climate adaptation
strategies by 2030. This campaign will be backed
by an online Community
of Action
platform linking museums, libraries, heritage
experts, and local custodians to share knowledge
and accelerate adaptation.
- Meanwhile,
the creative industries are stepping up. The
launch of the Creative
Integrity Playbook: How Agencies and Brands
Align Influence with Climate Science
aims to bring 250 brands and 1,000 agencies to
embed fossil-free procurement, narrative
integrity, and regenerative storytelling across
all their work. Together with the Cultural
Power: Narratives for Change
campaign, this movement aims to retrain
20,000 practitioners, engage 500 brands, and
shift EURO 500 million in
advertising budgets from
high-carbon messaging
to
climate-positive storytelling
- reaching over 10 million citizens through pop
culture, libraries, and public campaigns. Watch
the campaign video here.
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