COP30: Peoples’ Summit rejects false solutions, criticizes capitalism
The Peoples’ Summit ended on Sunday (Nov. 16) at the Federal University of Pará, in Belém, where participants criticized “false solutions” for the climate and called on world authorities to promote a transition in global production methods that guarantees justice, sovereignty, and popular participation.
A declaration drafted over two years by peoples from around the world and signed by 1,109 social organizations and political movements was read on Sunday during the event and delivered to the president of COP30, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, who pledged to bring the document to the COP30 negotiating tables at the next high-level session, which begins on Monday (17).
The summit’s final declaration repudiates the global production model and all processes rooted in capitalist logic, including the energy transition, the solutions proposed in the formal COP negotiations, and even the multilateralism currently in place.
“Capitalist production is the main cause of this climate crisis. And because we are inside this system, we are bombarded with supposed climate solutions, which are actually false solutions,” says Thauane Nascimento, a member of the Climate Summit Political Commission.
“So, we are totally opposed to any false solution presented as an alternative for combating the climate crisis. These solutions will not fulfill their purpose,” Nascimento stated.
According to the summit’s organizers, the use of a logic in which capital prevails allows large corporations to occupy decision-making and public policy-making spaces, enabling them to propose these “false solutions” as alternatives to the climate crisis.
“We understand that this organization of the people is the way forward; it is the model for solving this crisis. Another point we want to reaffirm is that the privatization, commodification, and financialization of common goods and public services are completely contrary to the interests of the people. This is not only here in Belém, not only in Brazil - it is happening all over the world,” Nascimento emphasizes.
Summit
Since November 12, the Peoples’ Summit has brought together approximately 20,000 participants in a program running parallel to the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).
In addition to panels, round tables, and collective activities, the summit began with a boat parade in Guajará Bay, which brought together 5,000 people in 250 boats. The event was also marked by a march that united other movements and, according to the organizers, reached 70,000 participants.
“People saw in this popular mobilization the opportunity to raise their voices, to shout collectively in the face of the process taking place in the official COP30 space, from which we cannot expect solutions that are taking too long,” says Darcy Frigo, a member of the Climate Summit Political Commission.
“We shout here that it is the people who have the solution. And the people say: ‘We are the solution,’” Frigo added.
