Activists protest for a just transition and climate finance
On Tuesday (Nov. 11), the second day of meetings at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, dozens of activists linked to the Climate Action Network (CAN) protested in the corridors of the Blue Zone, where diplomatic negotiations take place, to call for the creation of a multilateral instrument to drive action on just transition.
The multilateral instrument, which has been called the Belém Action Mechanism (BAM), would be responsible for coordinating efforts, establishing a common language, sharing knowledge, and facilitating access to financing and technology, always based on the principles of human rights, equity, and inclusion.
Kevin Buckland, from CAN, who has been attending the conference since COP12 in Copenhagen, Denmark, believes that, although the texts and negotiations are progressing, actions have not.
“The funding promised years ago has still not been paid. Rich countries continue to hide behind the ‘no money’ argument, while the number of millionaires and billionaires grows worldwide. The problem is not a lack of resources — it’s a lack of justice,” he pointed out.
The organization coordinates a global network of more than 1,900 nonprofits in over 130 countries, working together to combat the climate crisis.
“Here at COP, with the demand for a just transition, we are demanding that those who caused the climate crisis pay their historical debts. That individuals and companies that profit from the crisis pay their fair share, and that this money be used to support frontline communities — those who suffer the most, despite having contributed the least to the problem,” he stated.
Lobbyists
The demonstration brought together dozens of protesters in the main corridor, carrying colorful posters with watchwords like “just transition,” “rights,” “equity,” “care,” and “justice.”
“Inside the conference there are thousands of fossil fuel lobbyists, with millions of dollars of influence. One of the few ways civil society can exert power is through creative actions, such as the one we just carried out, which help shape global media narratives and, from there, directly pressure the negotiations,” Buckland went on to say.
“It’s really a David-versus-Goliath moment. But we know we’re on the side of justice. There are thousands of us sleeping on the floor here because we truly believe in what we’re doing. Meanwhile, fossil fuel lobbyists are here being paid to defend interests that will leave their own children with a work of destruction that they themselves will then have to try to fix, and suffer the consequences of,” he continued.
Held for the first time in the Amazon – the biome with the greatest biodiversity on the planet and a regulator of the global climate – COP30 faces the enormous challenge of putting climate change back at the center of international priorities.
In the view of the CAN activist, a just transition is a way of using the very transformation needed to address climate collapse as a tool to reverse the poverty left behind by centuries of colonization and heal the deep and still open wounds of the global economy.
