An Unjust Transition: How COP 27 Ripped Off South Africa’s Workers

South African workers are outraged at the $8.5 billion climate change deal signed by their government at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27). The deal, which was supported by Germany, France, the UK, the US, and the EU (or the Just Energy Transition Partnership, or JETP) at COP26, consists of highly concessionary loans that will lay off 100,000 coal workers and benefit individual capitalists and international banks. Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, the national spokesperson for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), explains how the deal does very little to address climate change and could wipe out poor and working class South Africans.