Top priorities for Just Transition in Bangladesh

Green transitions have an economic and human cost. People must benefit from these shifts.

CP

Conference participant

In one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, a just transition to a greener economy is an urgent and essential need. We recently co-hosted a national conference to explore ways to take this forward.

Bangladesh faces frequent and intense climate threats: storms and floods, droughts and landslides. These disasters destroy infrastructure, disrupt livelihoods and displace millions.

In May 2025, the Just Transition Academy in Dhaka brought together over 200 senior representatives from government, business and civil society groups to discuss pathways to pivot to a greener economy without leaving workers behind.

Awareness and action

The conference, which we co-hosted with the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Laudes Foundation, formed part of our programme to improve awareness and advance action around Just Transition. It is just one example of the Foundation’s power to bring together stakeholders from different sectors for productive discussions.

Alongside such events, our Just Transition programme also includes journalism training and mentoring, editorial content through our media platform, Context, and support for civil society groups working on these issues.

Shaping the narrative

Context’s climate correspondent Md. Tahmid Zami led a session emphasising the role of the media in building momentum for change. He highlighted the importance of shifting the narrative focus from technical plans to human stories. Tahmid also stressed the need to strengthen journalists’ capacity to write about environmental and labour issues through a Just Transition lens.

As part of our Just Transition programme, we are supporting local journalists in Bangladesh to develop and publish content around transition issues.

Context regularly publishes investigations highlighting the links between climate, inequality and labour rights – with these features often reproduced in outlets around the world. Recent examples from Bangladesh include stories on how garment workers can adapt to a changing climate, pay, pollution and safety issues in ship scrapyards and the risk of abuse for climate migrants.

“Repeated disaster losses make it harder to get through in recent years – and you can at least earn a steady income when you land a job in a place like Dhaka.”

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Abu Musa, who sent his brother to the city for work after a monsoon destroyed the family’s crops and fisheries

Read more on Context

 

Key conference takeaways

Alongside the need to raise awareness via independent journalism, the conference highlighted several other priority issues for action:

Next steps

Building on their shared understanding that Just Transition is national priority, conference participants agreed to work together to set up a national platform for action, to elevate the Just Transition agenda and accelerate progress.

The Bangladesh National Just Transition Academy will convene events and research, build capacity and establish blended finance models to scale innovate programmes and drive policy coherence.

Just Transition is not an abstract idea. It is about the future of our people.

CP

Conference participant