A Side Event at the Margins of the Local Leaders Forum in Rio de Janeiro
Introduction
The climate crisis is becoming increasingly urgent. This is becoming more and more critical as the world recently hit its first climate tipping point with the dying of the coral reefs in October 2025. It is vital that any climate action must consider the question of justice and human rights, to ensure that the transitions necessary don’t leave anyone behind. One of the most obvious ways of tackling climate change is to transition the energy supply to renewables. The market has already taken a key step in the right direction, reaching a record breaking high in clean energy investments in 2025.
Unfortunately, the speed and distribution of this energy transition is lacking. Especially on the level of localizing investments, the role of cities, states and regions cannot be overstated and yet it’s often neglected. This is a challenge that deserves more attention, and fortunately the COP30 presidency has put a strong focus on sub-nationalization of such efforts.
Under the South African G20 presidency, the conversations on just energy transitions also took a central role. Among many initiatives on this topic, the B20 Energy Mix and Just Transition Taskforce specifically identified three main recommendations: mobilizing energy transition finance at scale, accelerating industrialization across the energy value chain and modernizing and expanding the energy infrastructure.
As the world is coming together at the Local Leaders Forum in Rio de Janeiro to connect global efforts to local action, we want to bridge the efforts being made in the G20 space with that of COP30, along with highlighting the often-undervalued role of sub-national actors.
This event aims to address the following key questions:
- How can a multi-stakeholder approach be effectively implemented to support just energy transitions on a global and local scale?
- What are the solutions that are already in place, and how can they be scaled and/or replicated elsewhere?
- How can investment be channelled to local actors in a more just and equitable way to ensure that these transitions don’t leave anyone behind?
As a basis for this conversation, Democracy Works Foundation and F20 have developed an outcome paper based on the B20 EMJT Taskforce recommendations, their own G20 recommendations, a joint communiqué published in partnership with U20, W20, Y20 and B20, and direct input from practitioners from the private, public and philanthropic sectors. This side event at the margins of the Local Leaders Forum will provide the arena for the validation of the paper, identifying gaps or reinforcing key messages.
At this side event professionals from various sectors will dive into the questions outlined above. After a short introduction and discussion of the underlying outcomes paper of the B20 EMJT Task Force, 3-4 moderated breakout groups will focus on individually distributed questions for successful realization of just energy transitions, be it on a global or local level.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 5 November 2025, 8:00-10:00 am BRT (in-person only)
Location: Kincaid Law Offices, Av. Rio Branco, nº 01, 14º andar – Ed. RB1 – Centro, Rio de Janeiro
About
Democracy Works Foundation is a member of the F20 network and currently providing the F20 Chairperson. It is an independent foundation that builds and promotes inclusive, equitable and sustainable consensus democracies. It provides tools, platforms and content to strengthen democrats, democratic culture and democracy institutions.
The Business20 (B20) serves as the official G20 dialogue forum with the global business community. Established in 2010, the B20 is one of the most influential G20 Engagement Groups, bringing together business leaders from G20 member countries and beyond. It ensures that the voice of the business community is heard at the highest levels of international economic governance.
The F20 platform is an enabler and bridge-builder between philanthropy, civil society, businesses, the finance sector, think tanks and politics; an independent sounding board for foundations within and beyond the G20 process. F20’s policy recommendations are a set of policy asks for G20 decision makers that are actionable, global, climate-focused, and deeply rooted in socio-economic transformation.
