Frustration about slow progress at the United Nations Climate Conference boiled over last week, when on Tuesday, Indigenous activists pushed past security at the entrance of the main conference hall, called the Blue Zone, and briefly occupied the space. The action was meant to draw attention to the exclusivity that happens at the COPs. Danielle Falzon, a sociologist at Rutgers University, who researches the climate talks, says, “In the UNFCCC setting, success is measured by how long you stay in the room, how polished your presentation is, how fluent you are in bureaucratic English — and how well you can pretend that the world isn’t burning outside.”
Sônia Guajajara, Brazilian minister of the Indigenous peoples, stated in an interview that nearly 5,000 Indigenous people were participating in various events around the city, with about 900 granted official accreditation to participate in events inside the Blue Zone. Analysis finds 1,600 fossil fuel representatives at UN climate summit in Brazil, outnumbering almost every country delegation aside from Brazil. “There is no solution to avoid climate change without the participation of Indigenous people; they need to be here,” said Guajajara.
On Friday morning, dozens of Indigenous activists blocked the front of the COP30 summit venue, staging a sit-in that forced delegates to use a side entrance to resume their negotiations on tackling climate change. Security has increased checks, and lines to enter are getting longer.
Meanwhile, a parallel event, called the People’s Summit, was inaugurated on Wednesday at the Federal University of Para, after a flotilla of more than 5,000 people aboard around 200 vessels sailed together in the waters around Belem to arrive at the venue. The People’s Summit has been convening alongside the official COP since 1992, making space for frontline communities to raise voices together. You can read their manifesto here.
International activists are calling for a treaty to phase out fossil fuels and address the root cause of the climate crisis. “If we continue to extract hydrocarbons from the Earth, we will exterminate ourselves,” said Olivia Bissa, president of the Chapra Nation in the Peruvian Amazon.
Transparency International’s examination of the list of registered participants found that 54% of participants in national delegations either did not disclose the type of affiliation they have or selected a vague category such as “Guest” or “Other.” The UNFCCC still lacks a conflict of interest policy for attendees. This enables fossil fuel businesses to use the space to unduly influence negotiations, strike side deals, and spread climate disinformation.
On Thursday, Brazil launched the Belém Health Action Plan, a blueprint to help health ministries respond to the effects of climate breakdown. It also identifies children as a uniquely vulnerable group for the first time.
There has been much speculation about the Trump administration’s leaving the Paris Agreement and the absence of the US in this COP’s negotiations. The US Climate Action Network held a press conference on Thursday to make it known that frontline communities and climate justice organizations from the US have not retreated. Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat who played an essential role in the Paris Agreement, commented, “What the US has done is a choice; it is a sad choice, but it does not stop the advance of all others who are on the [clean energy] track,” Figueres says. “All it has done is open up the space hugely for China, which is completely delighted that they don’t have any substantial competition.”
Indeed, China is leading the world in renewable energy. In 2022, China installed roughly as much solar capacity as the rest of the world combined, then doubled its additional solar capacity in 2023. On Tuesday, the Climate Action Network gave a Ray of the Day Award to the G77 + China negotiating bloc for calling for the establishment of a Just Transition Mechanism under the UNFCCC — a proposal that mirrors many of the core elements civil society and trade unions have been advancing through the Belém Action Mechanism (BAM):
- Integrating fairness and equity into all levels of implementation;
- Promoting coordination and knowledge-sharing across sectors and institutions;
- Supporting non-debt-creating finance for transitions;
- Strengthening social dialogue; and
- Ensuring that people, not profits, remain at the heart of climate action.
On Saturday, thousands took to the streets outside the conference for the People’s Summit March. The joyous and defiant demonstration was the first major protest outside the annual climate talks since COP26 four years ago in Glasgow, as the last three gatherings were held in petrostates headed by authoritarian governments with questionable human rights records and little tolerance for demonstrations — Egypt, Dubai, and Azerbaijan.
Negotiations around finance, especially for adaptation and loss and damage, will likely heat up in this second week. The absence of meaningful finance at COP30 has been striking. Richer nations have repeatedly shirked their responsibilities and are dragging their feet on new commitments, despite being the primary contributors to global warming emissions. Some are even resorting to creative accounting. Canada’s repackaging of the final portion of its existing commitments as “new” funding is especially disappointing. Relying on uncertain private sector funds or loans leaves lower-income nations exposed to further economic risks and debts, rather than delivering the climate justice they deserve.
The post Your Summary of Negotiations: Nov. 17 appeared first on Climate Generation.
It smells like rotten eggs, releases toxic gases, endangers sea life and scuttles vacations. Scientists, startups and communities are trying to figure out what to do with it all.
From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Aynsley O’Neill with Inside Climate News’ Teresa Tomassoni.
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Osprey Orielle Lake is founder and executive director of The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) and a steering committee member of the Fossil Fuel Treaty.
Around the world, women are leading some of the most powerful efforts to stop fossil fuel expansion and implement the just transition the climate crisis demands.
In the Ecuadorian Amazon, Nemonte Nenquimo, an Indigenous Waorani woman, led a successful lawsuit for the Waorani against the Ecuadorian government to protect their territory and the Amazonian rainforest from oil extraction. Ecuador’s courts ruled in favor of the Waorani, setting a legal precedent for Indigenous rights and prompting similar legal fights worldwide.
In the heart of Cancer Alley in the Gulf South of the United States, Sharon Lavigne, founder of Rise St. James, took on fossil fuel polluters and won. After stopping a Formosa petrochemical facility in her parish, she continues to organize communities to stop fossil fuels, bringing awareness to the severe health impacts caused by the industry.
An initial cornerstone for an upcoming government convening on fossil fuel phaseout is the Fossil Fuel Treaty, which was founded by Tzeporah Burman. She won the 2019 Climate Breakthrough Award for her bold Treaty vision, which has now taken center stage in international climate action.
These women are not anomalies, they are part of a broader movement. Women the world over are stopping harmful projects and building regenerative futures. They are defending land, water, climate, and health. They are redefining what leadership looks like in a time of crisis.
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Research has found that countries with higher representation of women in parliament are more likely to ratify environmental treaties. One prominent cross-national study found that CO2 emissions decrease by approximately 11.51 percent in response to a one-unit increase in each countries’ scoring on the Women’s Political Empowerment Index. When women are incorporated into disaster planning or forest management, projects are more resilient and effective.
Yet because of persistent gender inequality, women – particularly Indigenous, Black and Brown women and women in low-income and frontline communities – are often disproportionately harmed by fossil fuel extraction and pollution. At the same time, they are also indispensable leaders of equitable solutions.
Bold, transformative solutions needed
Although the climate crisis may not be in the headlines recently, the crisis is increasing at lightening speed. From 2023 to 2025, the world crossed a dangerous threshold, marking the first three-year global average that exceeded the crucial 1.5°C guardrail, the very limit scientists identified as critical to avoid the worst catastrophic tipping points.
This is not a eulogy for 1.5°C, but an alarm about a narrowing window. The data makes clear that we still have an opportunity to hold long-term warming below that life-affirming threshold. What is required now is not incrementalism and business as usual but bold and transformative solutions from grassroots movements to the halls of government.
At the top of the list in tackling the climate crisis is the urgent need for a global phaseout of fossil fuel extraction and production. Coal, oil, and gas remain the primary driver of the climate crisis, and fossil fuel pollution is responsible for one in five deaths worldwide. The simple but challenging fact is, there is no way forward without a phaseout.
In 2023, at the U.N. Climate Summit in Dubai (COP28), governments agreed for the first time to “transition away from fossil fuels.” The language was historic but nonbinding, and implementation has been severely hindered. Most governments are doubling down and increasing production across coal, gas, and oil. At COP30 in Brazil, while 80 countries called for fossil fuel language in the final outcome text, governments ultimately left without any commitments to a phaseout.
Women’s assembly for fossil fuel phaseout
In response to this stalled progress, Colombia and the Netherlands are convening the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, bringing together governments committed to advancing cooperation toward a managed, equitable phaseout. Occurring outside the formal UN climate negotiations, the gathering reflects a growing recognition that progress often requires voluntary alliances of ambitious nations.
The urgency of this moment demands more than policy tweaks. It calls for a restructuring of the systems that fueled the crisis such as economic models that externalize harm, energy systems that prioritize profit over people, and governance structures that marginalize frontline communities. How we navigate this transition will shape the world our children inherit, and evidence shows that women’s leadership is vital to ensure a healthy and equitable outcome.
Colombia aims to launch fossil fuel transition platform at first global conference
As governments, civil society and global advocates prepare for the conference in Colombia, women’s leadership must not be an afterthought. It needs to be central to the agenda, inspired by equity, justice and care.
That is why the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network is convening global women leaders to advance strategies, proposals, and projects at the public Women’s Assembly for a Just Fossil Fuel Phaseout to be held virtually on March 31 to call for transformative action in Colombia. All are welcome.
A livable future depends on bold action now, and on women leading the way at this critical moment.
The post Why women’s leadership is central to unlocking the global phaseout of fossil fuels appeared first on Climate Home News.
Why women’s leadership is central to unlocking the global phaseout of fossil fuels
American farmers are drowning in health insurance costs, while their German counterparts never worry about medical bills. The difference may help determine which country’s small farms are better prepared for a changing climate.
Samantha Kemnah looked out the foggy window of her home in New Berlin, New York, at the 150-acre dairy farm she and her husband, Chris, bought last year. This winter, an unprecedented cold front brought snowstorms and ice to the region.
On the Farm, the Hidden Climate Cost of the Broken U.S. Health Care System
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Why women’s leadership is central to unlocking the global phaseout of fossil fuels
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