Incorporating Just Transition strategies in developing country NDCs and post COVID responses: Colombia

Colombia has committed to reducing GHG emissions by 51% by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. While the government has developed a robust legal framework for climate mitigation and adaptation, the report finds a critical gap in Just Transition planning. Massive layoffs are already occurring in the thermal coal sector due to falling international prices and the shift toward renewables, yet the government has not implemented specific policy responses to support affected workers. Similarly, conservation efforts in the AFOLU sector, particularly the expansion of protected areas and páramo ecosystems, threaten the livelihoods of informal rural workers and ethnic communities. The report concludes that Colombia's Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) system lacks the capacity to track social welfare and employment impacts, and recommends urgent, regionally differentiated strategies for economic diversification and worker retraining.

• Colombia's updated NDC aims for carbon neutrality by 2050 and a 51% reduction in net emissions by 2030 compared to the business-as-usual scenario.
• The Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector is the primary source of emissions, accounting for 50% of national totals, followed by energy use at 36%.
• Despite a prolific output of climate laws and regulations, the government has not implemented specific strategies to mitigate the negative externalities of these policies on labor markets and employment.
• The thermal coal sector is experiencing severe labor market disruptions, with massive layoffs in the Caribbean region driven by declining international prices and the transition to renewable energy.
• The Oil & Gas industry has not yet felt the direct impact of the energy transition on its labor market, and neither the government nor industry associations have proposed mitigation actions for future job losses.
• Conservation strategies, including the expansion of the National System of Protected Areas and the delimitation of 36 páramo ecosystems, may restrict the economic rights and livelihoods of informal rural workers and ethnic communities.
• A significant portion of the AFOLU workforce is informal, often driven by rural poverty and involved in illegal activities such as illicit crops and illegal mining.
• Colombia's current Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) system is insufficient for tracking the social and employment impacts of climate policies or the progress of a Just Transition strategy.
• The government's updated NDC indicates that a Just Transition Strategy coordinated by the Ministry of Labor is intended to be in place by 2023, but this has not yet addressed ongoing layoffs in the coal sector.

APA

Uribe, E. (2021). Incorporating Just Transition strategies in developing country NDCs and post COVID responses: Colombia. Climate Strategies. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Colombia_Report_Formatted_Updated.pdf

Chicago

Uribe, Eduardo. Incorporating Just Transition strategies in developing country NDCs and post COVID responses: Colombia. Climate Strategies, 2021. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Colombia_Report_Formatted_Updated.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Uribe |first1=Eduardo |title=Incorporating Just Transition strategies in developing country NDCs and post COVID responses: Colombia |publisher=Climate Strategies |date=2021 |url=https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Colombia_Report_Formatted_Updated.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{uribe2021incorporating, author = {Uribe, Eduardo}, title = {{Incorporating Just Transition strategies in developing country NDCs and post COVID responses: Colombia}}, institution = {Climate Strategies}, year = {2021}, url = {https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Colombia_Report_Formatted_Updated.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }