COP30: People, not profits and power, must be at the heart of negotiations at UN Climate summit

Source: Amnesty International –

  • Climate defenders from across Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru – some of the most dangerous countries in the world to defend the environment and climate – will be part of the Amnesty delegation to COP30
  • Amnesty International is also urging governments to resist aligning with US President Trump’s denial of the accelerating climate crisis and instead demonstrate true climate leadership

COP30 leaders must keep people, and not profits and power, at the heart of negotiations by committing to protect and address activists’ demands to ramp up the climate action our planet urgently needs – a full, fast, fair and funded fossil-fuel phase-out and just transition to sustainable energy for all, in all sectors, Amnesty International said ahead of the annual UN climate summit in Brazil. 

“The global climate crisis is the single biggest threat to our planet and demands a befitting response. The effects of climate change are becoming more pronounced across the whole world. We confront increasingly frequent and severe storms, wildfires, droughts and flooding, as well as sea level rise that will destroy some small island states,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, who will be attending the conference. 

“COP30 in Brazil presents an opportunity for collective resistance against those trying to reverse years of commitments and efforts to keep global warming below 1.5°C. The fact that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere soared by a record amount last year should ring alarm bells for world leaders at COP30.

“Amnesty International is urging governments to resist aligning with the Trump administration’s denial of the accelerating climate crisis and instead demonstrate true climate leadership. In the face of President Trump’s rejection of science coupled with the intensified lobbying for fossil fuels, global leaders must redouble their efforts to take urgent climate action – with or without the US. They must push back against attempts to curtail funding for renewable energy projects and resist the bullying efforts by the USA and others to weaken policies and regulations to combat climate change. 

“Humanity can win if states commit at COP30 to a full, fast, fair and funded fossil-fuel phase-out and just transition to sustainable energy for all, in all sectors, as recently confirmed by the International Court of Justice’s recent Advisory Opinion. These commitments must go hand-in-hand with a significant injection of climate finance, in the form of grants, not loans, from states that are the worst culprits for greenhouse gas emissions. Crucially, states must take steps to protect climate activists and environmental defenders. This is the only way to secure climate justice and protect the human rights of billions of people.” 

Humanity can win if states commit at COP30 to a full, fast, fair and funded fossil-fuel phase-out and just transition to sustainable energy for all, in all sectors.

Agnès Callamard

Brazil will host the 30th Conference of Parties (COP30) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Belém from 10 to 21 November. More than 190 parties to the Paris Agreement will discuss issues such as scaling up climate finance, especially for adaptation, national targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions; how and when to “transition away” from fossil fuels as agreed at COP28; and how to support measures to reduce climate harms and address unavoidable loss and damage in lower income countries that are bearing the brunt of climate change despite contributing the least to it.