Workers need a seat at the table when climate plans are drawn up

At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Climate Week 4 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) urged governments to include workers from the early stage of preparing their national climate plans. BWI members in the construction, building materials, wood and forestry industries are often most exposed to the immediate consequences of climate change and need a seat at the table. 

Adaptation to extreme weather was central to BWI’s message - heatwaves, floods and storms often carry the heaviest repercussions for workers in BWI sectors. Climate plans must urgently address these increasingly frequent extreme weather events with concrete measures. 

Global Climate Justice Programme Coordinator Dorothy Guerrero represented BWI at the event, as countries from all over the world presented their national climate plans that they will submit to COP31 in Antalya. 

“Climate change is a ticking time bomb and will not wait for governments to catch up – all over the world, workers are already facing the brunt of the impacts,” said Guerrero. “Changes need to be made fast, and workers must have a role in deciding the future when climate plans which shape their lives are made.” 

At a two-day workshop convened by the UNFCCC and the International Labour Organization on delivering just transition policy, Guerrero argued in her presentation that a Just Transition only works if the jobs created in the process are decent, well-paid and protected – backed by reskilling and upskilling support delivered at both national and local levels. Protection also entails ending precarious labour or contractualisation. 

Guerrero also called for equal protection for migrant workers, who are now a defining feature of the construction, building materials, wood and forestry industries and often face precarious conditions and the worst repercussions of climate change.  

Baku was the fourth in a series of UNFCCC Climate Weeks built to turn climate pledges into delivery.  These events happen twice a year to bridge intergovernmental negotiations with real economy implementation ahead of upcoming COP summits. The emphasis in Baku was on shifting the pledges into implementation or moving from what needs to be done, to how to make it happen.  

Climate Week 4 culminated with the Sixth Dialogue under the United Arab Emirates Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP), where countries laid out their positions. The UNFCCC collected the points raised to be added in the COP31 deliberations. The parties are aiming to deliver a formal decision and the first effectiveness review of the JTWP in COP31 in November 2026.  

The BWI message ahead of COP31: put worker protections and representation at the heart of every climate plan.