The Human Consciousness Now...Our World in the Midst of Becoming...to What? Observe, contemplate Now.
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 17 2025 (IPS) - Brazilian Indigenous leader and environmentalist Cacique Raoni Metuktire appealed for support for Indigenous peoples and their land. From the podium of the Peoples’ Summit, Cacique Raoni warned negotiators at the UN climate conference in Belém that without recognizing Indigenous peoples’ land rights, there will be no climate justice.
“It is getting warmer and warmer. And a big change is going on with the earth. Air is harder to breathe; this is only the beginning,” he said on Sunday while addressing representatives of the global climate justice movement at the Peoples’ Summit. “If we don’t act now, there will be very big consequences for everyone.”
Indigenous people and civil activists from around the world took part in the Peoples’ Summit. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
While Belém city is hosting world leaders, government officials, scientists, policymakers, activists, and more than 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists to decide the future course of global climate action, the Peoples’ Summit gathered frontline voices.
About nine kilometers from the COP30 venue, at the grounds of the Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA-Federal University of Pará), activists engaged in diverse dialogue for five days and issued the “Declaration of the Peoples’ Summit Towards COP30” in the presence of Indigenous leaders like Raoni, which was handed over to the COP presidency.
The Declaration states that the capitalist mode of production is the main cause of the growing climate crisis. It claims that today’s environmental problems are “a consequence of the relations of production, circulation, and disposal of goods, under the logic and domination of financial capital and large capitalist corporations.” It demands the participation and leadership of people in constructing climate solutions, recognizing ancestral knowledge.
Artists performing indigenous folklore during the closing event of the Peoples’ summit. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
Sebastián Ordoñez Muñoz, associated with War on Want, a UK-based organization and part of the political commission of the Peoples’ Summit, said the political declaration constructed through the summit process reflects peoples’ demands and proposals. “It has our solutions, people’s solutions,” he said. He explained that crafting the declaration was a convergence of diverse voices, uniting around clarity on what needs to happen to address the climate crisis.
“It is an expression of the autonomy of people’s movements coming together, converging to develop clear proposals that are based on the real solutions happening on the ground-in the territories, in the forests, in the seas, in the rivers, and so on,” he added. “It’s important to hand it over because we need to make sure that our voices are represented there [at COP]. Any space that we have inside the COP has always been through struggle.”
As a space for community members to come together and deliver the public’s point of view, Peoples’ Summits have been organized as parallel conferences of the COP. It did not take place during the last three COPs. But in Brazil, civil society is actively making its case.
The Peoples’ Summit attracted a large number of Indigenous leaders and community members, whereas at COP their access is limited. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
“We need to continue making our voices heard there, but also not to beg-to state that we have the solutions and that we must be listened to, because none of these answers, none of these solutions are possible without the communities themselves,” Ordoñez Muñoz told IPS News from the Peoples’ Summit ground. “I think it’s a statement and a road map. Where do we go from here?”
Unlike COP30, the Peoples’ Summit attracted diverse groups of community members and civil society leaders. The COP venue follows the process of negotiations, while the summit emphasizes collaboration to find solutions and celebrate unity. It blends discussion with Indigenous folklore and music to bring stories of community.
“If you go into the COP summit, it’s so stale. It’s so sterile. It’s so monotonous. So homogeneous. So corporate,” Ordoñez Muñoz said. “Over here, what we have is the complete opposite. We have such diversity-differences in voice, vocabulary, language, and struggles.”
He added that the COP process is moving in one direction, unjust in nature, and reproducing many of the dynamics that led to the crisis in the first place.
“Over here, we’re all moving together. We have unity.”
This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.
IPS UN Bureau Report
Climate change crisis offers us a real chance to bring a new vision, one that's rooted in fairness, dignity and harmony with nature. The global community here has the ability and opportunity to balance people, profit, and planet in a way that has not been achieved in the past. —Binaifer Nowrojee, human rights lawyer and president of the Open Society Foundations (OSF)
Our countries did not light this fire—but we are burning in its heat. And the smoke does not stop at our borders. —Evans Njewa, Least Developed Countries Group chair, when talking about the importance of the Loss and Damage Fund for LDCs
The fossil fuel industry has polluted our art, and now it’s polluting our information. So, we clearly say: stop the lies. —Brazilian political scientist Rayana Burgos
If I could meet the COP president, I would speak to him about the need to preserve the environment, to truly preserve it, alongside the Indigenous people. I would also speak about the need to put life above profit. —Jeane Carla, activist at COP30
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 17 2025 (IPS) - Mutirão first entered the global climate discourse in Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago’s first letter to the world, which was sent in March 2025 as part of his COP30 presidency.
“The Brazilian culture inherited from Brazilian native indigenous peoples the concept of ‘Mutirão’ or Motirô in the Tupi-Guarani language.
“It refers to a community coming together to work on a shared task, whether harvesting, building, or supporting one another,” he wrote.
As a nation of football, he assured the world that the global community can win the climate fight by “virada,” which means “fighting back to turn the game around when defeat seems almost certain.” Delegates say the COP30 Mutirão approach, inspired by the Brazilian tradition of communities working together to solve shared problems, is fit for purpose amidst escalating climate crises.
Importantly, Brazil has framed the ocean as an emerging priority. The Mutirão approach for COP30’s oceans plan is a collaborative, action-oriented strategy emphasizing the ocean’s role in climate change, moving from negotiation to implementation.
The plan is called Mutirão Azul, or the Blue Collective Effort, and integrates solutions for oceans, cities, water, and infrastructure, encouraging participation from governments, businesses, and communities to achieve tangible oceanic climate actions and commitments. The Mutirão spirit will now embody international efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
“I research physical oceanography and energy in the climate system. And what we would like to see out of this COP (Conference of Parties) is more focus on blue climate solutions,” says Kerstin Bergentz from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.
The Mutirão approach for COP30’s oceans plan is a collaborative, action-orientedstrategy emphasizing the ocean’s role in climate change. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
She told IPS that if the world were to “implement all of the blue climate solutions that are out there, including protecting mangroves, restoring wetlands, investing in blue carbon in all shapes and sizes, and marine carbon dioxide removal, these blue climate solutions have the potential to provide 35 percent of the CO₂ emission reductions that we need to see by 2050 in order to meet our target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
“Unfortunately, climate funding for ocean projects or ocean-based solutions is less than 1 percent at the moment. And so, what we would like to see is more focus on the ocean because the future is not just green—it is also blue.”
Anya Stajner, also from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, told IPS that the ocean makes up “over two-thirds of our planet and it should no longer be a side conversation during these negotiations. The ocean is an important climate control. It absorbs up to 90 percent of the excess heat in the atmosphere, keeping our Earth 55 degrees cooler than it would be otherwise.”
Ocean currents, often referred to as the “great ocean conveyor belt,” transport warm water from the tropics toward the poles and cold water back toward the equator. This circulation helps distribute heat around the planet, moderating regional climates; without it, temperatures would be far more extreme.
“Some students at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have done an analysis to see how often the ocean is mentioned in Nationally Determined Contributions—a country’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impact of climate change.”
Blue NDCs refer to Nationally Determined Contributions that integrate ocean-based climate solutions. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
“They found that while that number of mentions has risen and become more meaningful in the past five years, it is still not central enough to discussion.”
The Belém climate talks could turn the tide. The Brazilian Presidency’s appointment of Marinez Scherer as a Special Envoy for Oceans and the adoption of the Mutirão approach are bringing the ocean closer to the epicenter of global climate negotiations and diplomacy.
At COP30, the ocean is being increasingly positioned as a partner in mitigation and adaptation toward the protection of vulnerable coastal and island communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
Ocean financing at COP30 is a major focus, aiming to secure predictable, accessible, and targeted funding for ocean-based climate solutions and the sustainable blue economy.
Key goals include creating dedicated finance windows, integrating ocean health into national climate plans or Blue NDCs, and mobilizing public and private investment for ocean-based mitigation, adaptation, and science.
Blue NDCs are Nationally Determined Contributions that explicitly integrate ocean-based climate solutions. This emerged from the Blue NDC Challenge, an initiative launched by Brazil and France at the UN ocean Conference in Nice in June 2025, to urge countries to include ocean-focused climate actions in their national climate plans ahead of COP30. Said actions range from restoring coastal ecosystems and adapting maritime industries to promoting ocean-based renewable energy.
Eleven countries have already committed to the Blue NDC Challenge, including Brazil, France, Australia, Chile, Fiji, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Palau, the Republic of Seychelles and the United Kingdom. Blue or green, NDCs are important because they are the core mechanism for countries to set and meet climate goals under the Paris Agreement. These countries have explicitly placed the ocean resource in their climate impact plan.
NDCs are the vehicles through which international commitments translate to national actions. Overall, as of the official opening of COP30 in Belem on November 10, 2025, more than 100 countries, representing at least 70 percent of global emissions, had tabled new NDCs. Among the G20—the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters—12 had tabled their new NDCs.
Blue NDCs in particular facilitate the integration of the ocean into national climate goals, supporting initiatives like the Mangrove Breakthrough and strengthening ocean governance through frameworks like the BBNJ Agreement.
Like the Paris Agreement, the BBNJ Agreement is a legally binding international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction or the high seas. Adopted in 2023, the BBNJ or the High Seas treaty will enter into force in early 2026 after reaching 60 ratifications.
At COP30, the High Seas Treaty is the most concrete ocean-related item on the table, and Brazil has committed to ratifying it by the end of this year. Overall, the treaty establishes a global framework for issues such as area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments, and equitable benefit-sharing from marine genetic resources.
“The High Seas Treaty is a win for multilateralism because it allows governments to work together to protect more of the oceans that go beyond our exclusive economic zones,” Stajner stressed.
“There has been a lot of talk at the last decades of COPs and we have plans and now it’s about pushing those plans forward. And I think the High Seas Treaty is an example of how that is moving forward.”
“And so, this COP is all about action and implementation for the ocean.”
This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.
IPS UN Bureau Report
Excerpt:
If the world were to implement all of the blue climate solutions, including protecting mangroves, restoring wetlands, investing in blue carbon in all shapes and sizes, and marine carbon dioxide removal, it would result in a 35 percent reduction of the CO₂ emissions. —Ocean scientist Kerstin Bergentz
Nov 17 2025 (IPS) -
Emerging research on the nexus between climate, peace and security (CPS) supports the integration of climate adaptation and mitigation methods to advance sustainable peace. While climate change itself may not be the direct cause of conflict, its cascading effects such as resource scarcity, displacement, and economic stress could become focal points of tension. Although these links remain debated, meaningful responses could have delayed stabilizing effects. Locally driven responses become essential in addressing climate change as a security concern, to mitigate future cycles of conflict. A nuanced CPS framing can support smarter climate action while enhancing security at multiple levels. India’s scalable local models, Germany’s technical expertise, and Australia’s Pacific engagement pose an opportunity for the three countries to collaborate on advancing integrated CPS approaches.
How is this playing out in the Indo-Pacific?
The Indo-Pacific, one of the fastest growing regions from an economic, trade and development standpoint, is facing some of the most complex challenges arising from climate change and geopolitical developments. These are compounded by non-traditional security issues such as rising food, water and health insecurities, the intensity of which often eclipses traditional security concerns for regional policy makers. The COP27 Presidency initiative “Climate Responses for Sustaining Peace” (CRSP), spearheaded a pivot from a climate security nexus towards a climate and peacebuilding nexus that becomes useful to adapt for the Indo-Pacific region. The dichotomy of need, approach and security response provides countries a new potential for innovative engagement across the region.
Innovative approaches require acknowledging that current development models and business as usual will no longer be sustainable. As risks and challenges intensify with global repercussions, new partners must step-up with skills, knowledge and resources for ground up, contextual transformation. Germany, India and Australia have very different historical contexts and regional approaches, yet these growing global powers must respond proactively and in a coordinated manner.
Beyond solely relying on existing multilateral institutions, it is pragmatic to explore new configurations that address gaps left by larger organizations. Smaller groupings working with local actors can deliver ground-up solutions that states can sustain beyond donor cycles/political changes. They are also better equipped to pursue integrated approaches while working towards larger strategic balance and security concerns.
As one of the oldest and largest partners in the region, Australia has committed to being a principled and reliable partner to countries in the Pacific as well as the wider Indian Ocean region. Its 2024 National Defence Strategy, International Development Policy and remarks by senior leadership over the last few years suggest a strong commitment to relationships, with a global security agenda that is (debatably) climate-forward, ranging from disaster response to renewable energy. As a founding member of the India Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), it remains the largest donor with deep ties and networks despite a chequered legacy.
India positions itself as the primary security provider for the Indian Ocean region, evolving from a regionally focused Neighbourhood First Policy to a more comprehensive Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) initiative. It is a founding member of the International Solar Alliance which focuses on climate positive solutions especially for LDCs and SIDS. While India has had a longer history in the Indian Ocean, its engagement with the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) has steadily increased through grants, lines of credit, concessional loans, humanitarian assistance, capacity building, and technical assistance in areas like Health, IT, education, and community development. India’s development cooperation is guided by the principles of South-South cooperation, anchored on low-cost development solutions and non-conditional aid.
While Germany’s engagement in the region has been more recent in comparison, it brings technical knowledge and capacity in climate adaptation, ecosystem-based solutions, and capacity-building initiatives. German universities and research organizations are engaged in developing cutting edge climate tech solutions, which can be contextualised with regional partner countries. For example, the ‘Ensuring climate-resilient access to water and sanitation’ project strengthened rural water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) systems by integrating modern climate-resilient technologies.
Unlikely partners make for innovative engagement
Though minilateral cooperation has tended to proceed ad hoc or with a strict focus on blue economy or marine pollution issues, it offers a nuanced approach to balance traditional security concerns and emerging climate related risks and challenges. While many trilateral and quadrilateral efforts exist, a more efficient streamlining of projects, knowledge and resources can benefit small island countries in the Indian and Pacific Ocean that are often overwhelmed by attention. Many current efforts consume valuable resources while primarily functioning as discussion forums with limited tangible impact on ground. While Germany, India and Australia might seem like unlikely partners, their unique and complementary skills and resources can implement a more nuanced CPS agenda with partners across the Indo-Pacific. Their potential lies in addressing overlooked areas such as smaller projects, research, financing options and capacity building.
One way to begin collaboration is by establishing a trilateral technical cooperation track with the Pacific Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Hub, a coordinated regional support mechanism for PICs to implement and finance their climate commitments. While Germany and Australia are already among the key financiers, this track could leverage Australia’s regional presence and expertise while Germany and India could offer institutional support on low grade technology, low-cost project design merging modern technology with traditional knowledge. The track could commence with scaled down water security related projects, a key area of concern for many Pacific nations.
Another possibility is expanding the India–Australia Centre of Excellence for Disaster Management to include Germany-based Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) that specializes in technology such as AI for Pandemics and Disaster Risk Reduction. Together, they could jointly develop, and pilot dual-use disaster risk resilience technologies and capacity-building programs tailored for the Indo-Pacific region.
While both India and Germany have ongoing capacity constraints, their technical knowledge can complement Australia’s operations in the Pacific. Ignoring these opportunities risks leaving the region trapped in reactive cycles of crisis management, without solutions that are locally owned and sustainable. Innovative approaches that focus on filling the gaps can address the complex ways in which CPS linkages play out. Moving forward, strategic coordination among partners will be essential to translating these approaches into sustained regional impact.
Related articles:
Reconstructing the China–India Climate Diplomacy
The Case for a Climate-First Maritime Reframing of the Indian Ocean Region
The Indus Water Treaty Suspension: A Wake-Up Call for Asia–Pacific Unity?
Left Behind: Why Afghanistan Cannot Tackle Climate Change Alone
Ambika Vishwanath is the Founder Director of Kubernein Initiative and a Principal Research Fellow at La Trobe Asia. She is a geopolitical expert and works at the intersection of emerging security challenges, climate security, and foreign policy.
Treesa Shaju is a Programme Associate at Kubernein Initiative with an interest in the intersection of gender, foreign policy and conflict. She is a 2023 Women of Colour Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS) fellow..
This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished from the original with their permission
IPS UN Bureau
BANGKOK, Thailand, Nov 17 2025 (IPS) - The year 2024 was the hottest on record globally. In Asia and the Pacific, Bangladesh was the worst-hit country, with about 33 million people affected by lower crop yields that destabilized food systems, along with extensive school closures and many cases of heatstroke and related diseases. Children, the elderly and outdoor low-wage earners in poor and densely populated urban areas suffered the most, as they generally had less access to cooling systems or to water supplies and adequate healthcare. India, too, was badly affected, with around 700 heat-related deaths mostly in informal settlements.
Higher-income areas usually lie in cooler, greener neighbourhoods, so the hottest districts are often the poorest – adding to social inequality. In the city of Bandung, Indonesia, for example, a study shows that there can be temperature differences of up to 7°C between the hottest and coolest parts of town.
Future prospects for the region will depend critically on the progress of climate change. Under a high-emissions scenario, we project that extreme heat will be more frequent, intense and widespread — what were once occasional events will become seasonal or even year-round phenomena. Rising temperatures also affect other parts of the Earth’s ecosystem – notably glacial melt.
Warming in the Arctic can influence weather, precipitation and glacial behaviour across Central and South Asia. Globally, this century, glaciers have lost about 5 per cent of their volume. By 2060, under a high-emissions scenario, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mongolia, Myanmar, Türkiye and Uzbekistan could lose more than 70 per cent of their glacier mass. These phenomena also add to sea-level rise, raising existential risks for some countries in the Pacific.
To tackle these challenges, countries will meet this week at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific to consider opportunities to integrate heat risk into early warning systems and development planning.
The key priority is to move from reactive heat risk management to long-term, science-informed strategies. Policy actions are needed at local, national, regional and global levels. This is the International Year of Glacial Preservation, which offers a critical opportunity for collective action.
At the local level, nature-based solutions such as trees lining streets, urban parks, green roofs and wetland conservation help lower urban temperatures. These measures can increase shade, promote evapotranspiration and act as heat sinks, reducing heat island effects. Vegetation and tree canopies can reduce peak summer temperatures by up to 5°C.
While effects vary by vegetation type and density, green roofs and walls in Singapore, for example, have been shown to reduce surface temperatures by up to 17°C and ambient air temperatures by as much as 5°C.
Countries in Asia and the Pacific can significantly reduce heat-related illness, mortality and disruptions to livelihoods by building heat-ready, multi-hazard early warning systems. Expanding heat-health warning systems in just 57 countries could save approximately 100,000 lives each year.
To support countries, ESCAP plans to scale-up climate-responsive and inclusive social protection schemes that include technical support for heat-specific social protection provisions that ensure heat readiness, along with income and non-income support, especially for the poor living in densely populated urban areas.
Additionally, recognizing the benefits of nature-based solutions, our efforts can strengthen collaboration among national governments, municipalities and local communities to create green, cooling cross-border corridors.
These passages can chill the air, reduce surface temperatures and provide buffers against desertification, land degradation, drought and sand and dust storms.
Finally, we must push the use of innovative space solutions to strengthen heat preparedness in early warning systems. Despite the proven benefits of early warning systems, coverage remains incomplete. Only 54 per cent of global meteorological services issue warnings for extreme temperatures, and even fewer provide alerts for heatwaves or thermal stress.
In Nepal, for example, a community survey revealed that about three-quarters of respondents from vulnerable groups had not received any heat alerts.
ESCAP can leverage existing cooperation to share Earth observation data and technical expertise for mapping and monitoring heat exposure and city vulnerability to urban heat island effects. This information enables greater precision in forecasting and quantifying heat risk, as well as for issuing timely heat alerts.
The Asia-Pacific region has considerable experience in managing cascading disasters. But the rising threat of extreme heat adds a new level of urgency. Every country needs to act now to meet the scale of this evolving disaster risk landscape and to turbocharge regional cooperation. ESCAP stands ready to support countries in these endeavours – as we prepare for an ever-hotter world.
IPS UN Bureau
Excerpt:
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 15 2025 (IPS) - In the scorching heat and humidity, Canru Pataxo marched with his one-year-old son firmly held in his arms.
Pataxo was one of the thousands of Indigenous people and activists who protested in Belém on Saturday to express their anger and pressure world leaders. He attended the protest in the host city of the UN Climate Conference with his son, as it was his child’s future that he was fighting for.
“The importance of having my son here is to show him that I need to protect the future,” he said while trying to protect his son’s face from the sun. “He is my future; he is the future of my people.”
Pataxo is indigenous to the world’s biggest carbon-capturing forest, the Amazon. While world leaders and negotiators decide the future of climate action from COP30 negotiation rooms, people on the front line of climate change impacts and activists marched to pressure negotiators to act now.
“I believe that much more still needs to be done. The conference is not yet enough to guarantee my son’s future,” Pataxo said. “His future still depends on what countries do for our environment.”
The climate negotiations are heading toward their final week. Indigenous communities and climate activists demand climate justice for people, not for corporations. After COP26 in Glasgow, the host city also saw the largest march by the people. Armed with placards and symbols of a burning Earth, they denounced fossil fuel industries, government inaction, and corporate lobbying.
“I think that’s what’s exciting about this COP, that civil disobedience is allowed,” said Timi Moloto, a climate activist from South Africa. “It’s vital that we don’t put limits on how Indigenous people achieve our liberation.”
In a recent Emissions Gap Report, the UN Environment Program warned that the world is on track to exceed the 1.5°C temperature mark within the next decade and called for urgent action.
Indigenous people in traditional attire at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
Thousands of people marched at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil, demanding climate action. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
Protesters at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil, in symbolic costumes depicting pollution caused by fossil fuel. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
A young activist chanting at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
An Indigenous participant with elaborate feather headdresses at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
People walked several kilometers during the People’s March for Climate, held in the COP30 host city Belém, Brazil, without thinking about the heat. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
Fossil fuel phaseout is one of the major demands by the activist community at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil, but at the COP more than 1600 fossil fuel lobbyists are participating. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
A group of Indigenous people at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
A protester wearing a mask at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
This photo essay is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.
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Excerpt:
Thousands, including a young father and his toddler, took to the streets for the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. The march represents a halfway mark in the climate negotiations.
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 14 2025 (IPS) - Farmer and climate activist from Nigeria, Melody Areola, is beating the heat in Belém and voicing farmers’ rights in climate discussions. As the UN Climate Conference, COP30, in Brazil approaches the end of its first week, activists like Melody are making their voices louder.
Ignoring the humidity-fueled heat on Wednesday evening, she chanted slogans and addressed the crowd of activists and participants. “No Farmer, No Food,” she said loudly, with the group echoing her chants.
“Every international agreement should be about and centered around people,” she says.
Indigenous activists want recognition of their land. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
Activists voice concerns about the planet at COP30. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
Palestinian rights activist says there can be no climate justice without Palestinian liberation. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
Protests at the gate inconvenienced delegates. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
Activists hail from various parts of the world, yet they consistently convey the same message: the foundation of a just transition cannot be based on lies and false solutions. They are calling out fossil fuel industries and demanding climate justice with human rights, food security based on local knowledge, and support for locally based solutions.
“Just transition relies on real solutions from people on the ground,” said Nona Chai, Program Coordinator at the Just Transition Alliance. “We need to move away from fossil fuels and industrial agriculture.”
After a few years of constrained protests at COPs, Belém is preparing for a large protest on Saturday.
In the Blue Zone’s main hallway, a group of youth activists staged a silent protest on Wednesday. With their mouths taped they carried placards with slogans such as ‘Adaptation Justice Now,’ ‘We Demand Public Grants-Based Adaptation Finance Now,’ and ‘Public Property, No Trespassing.’
Faith-based protest groups demonstrated with long blue cloths as a “River of Hope” to showcase the cry of the earth. “It’s a moral call for action to the leaders here,” said Laura Morales of the Laudato Si’ Movement.
Ana Sanchez, a community organizer, is actively participating in different protests and connecting climate justice to the Palestinian cause.
“There cannot be climate justice without Palestinian liberation,” she said. “Carbon emissions from bombs dropped in Gaza are greater than the annual emissions of 100 countries. We need to connect climate justice with Palestinian liberation.”
Silent protest for adaptation justice. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
Security is increasingly tight at COP30 in Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS
In Belém, day by day, protests from Indigenous communities are growing. They are demanding recognition of their land and knowledge as a system of climate adaptation. This morning (Friday, Nov 14), a group of Indigenous people blocked the main entrance for some time while protesting silently.
While their protest was peaceful, a breach of the premises by protestors earlier in the week meant the UNFCCC sent out a message of reassurance.
“Please be aware there is a peaceful demonstration taking place at the front entrance to the Blue Zone. There is no danger.”
And with each new protest, security is more and more visible. With riot gear and shields, they stand guard as many of the more than 56,000 accredited delegates take selfies in front of the venue.
IPS UN Bureau Report
Excerpt:
Activists hail from various parts of the world, yet they consistently convey the same message: the foundation of a just transition cannot be based on lies and false solutions.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 14 2025 (IPS) - As the world gathers in Brazil for the UN climate talks, the country’s livestock sector – one of the largest in the world – is understandably in the spotlight.
Livestock are a significant contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil (and around the world) and have been linked to deforestation, but these animals represent so much more than that to so many, especially in the Global South.
Brazil accounts for approximately 20 per cent of global beef exports. The livestock sector is a major contributor to the country’s economy – responsible for 8.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and roughly nine million jobs.
For 1.3 billion people worldwide, livestock is a lifeline: a protector of livelihoods, guardian of nutrition, cornerstone of tradition, and potential pathway out of poverty. For the majority and especially pastoralists, reducing herd sizes is not an easy, or frankly viable, option.
COP30 is supposed to bring people from vastly different contexts together, to find solutions that work for everyone, as well as funding to enable it to happen. This year’s host offers special lessons for Africa’s livestock sector, as Brazil’s livestock sector was not always so productive and efficient.
Brazilian policies and investments have seen livestock productivity rise 61 per cent in the past two decades, while pasture land use and emissions intensity – that is, the emissions per unit of meat, milk or eggs produced – have gone down.
The key to this success has been avoiding uniform prescriptions and instead adopting regionally adapted and context-specific approaches.
For example, high-yield tropical grasses like Brachiaria have become central to boosting productivity across the country’s Cerrado region, improving cattle health and overall performance, and reducing costs. In southern Brazil, where smaller farms are more common, the integration of crop-livestock systems have increased land efficiency, promoted biodiversity, and diversified farm incomes. Mineral supplements and high-energy feeds have had the biggest impact in the Southeast of Brazil, where there are large feedlots.
Much like Brazil thirty years ago, many of today’s developing countries struggle to produce meat, milk and eggs efficiently. Poor quality feed, animal health, and genetics mean animals take much longer to reach slaughter weight or milk volume. Even if herd sizes are smaller, the emissions per unit of product can be 16 times higher.
The impact is that hunger and poverty are prevalent in these countries and, in some, still rising. Micronutrient deficiency – a result of insufficient animal-source food consumption – is also widespread among children, which has a devastating effect on health and economic development (contributing to annual GDP losses up to 16 per cent).
This is why at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) we are researching science-based interventions that raise productivity and cut emissions intensity. For example, MaziwaPlus is an animal health-oriented project focused on Mastitis, a disease in dairy cows responsible for milk yield losses of up to 25 per cent. With Scotland’s Rural College we are also working on highly digestible forages, which could result in 20 per cent methane emissions reductions. EnviroCow is another productivity-oriented initiative, trying to identify livestock that remain productive despite environmental challenges.
And ILRI’s work does not stop at research. The Institute also connects evidence with policy and practice, as seen in Kenya’s recent submission to the UNFCCC’s Sharm el-Sheikh portal, which cites participatory rangeland management approaches developed by ILRI and partners.
Unlocking these benefits at the global level will require reframing the worldwide sustainability discussion around livestock – seeing it as a solution to be invested in, rather than a problem to be swept under the rug.
For example, climate finance should start rewarding reductions in emissions intensity (not just absolute emissions), so that countries improving productivity and lowering emissions per litre of milk or kilo of meat are supported. Moreover, the world needs to invest far more than the 0.2 per cent of climate finance currently put towards livestock research and innovation (and even less to developing solutions in low- and middle-income countries).
Most importantly, livestock should be embedded in national climate plans. Livestock should be recognised as more than a source of emissions, and as an important solution for climate resilience, food security, and adaptation – especially in developing countries and regions where they are the backbone of rural economies.
But as COP30 concludes, the conversation cannot end there.
This year’s conference must be a moment when the world recognises that livestock, managed well, are an important part of a more pragmatic global strategy which both protects the planet and raises the welfare of its people.
The timing could not be more fitting as next year will begin the UN-declared International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. Rangelands cover over half of the Earth’s land surface, store vast amounts of carbon, and support hundreds of millions of pastoralist livestock keepers, yet barely feature in most national climate plans.
If we choose to recognise and act on the potential of rangelands and pastoralists, they can become one of the great success stories of climate and development – driven by science, stewardship, and local knowledge.
Professor Appolinaire Djikeng is the Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).
IPS UN Bureau