The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) has just ended on a melancholy note. It failed to decisively confront the climate emergency on key points such as climate finance and the reduction of fossil fuel use. It showed, once again, that saving capitalism seems more important than saving humanity and the planet as we know it.
When we talk about saving humanity, we are referring to the portion that already suffers the effects of climate change. They will continue to shoulder the burden of the dominant classes, who remain safe from forced migration, loss of land, worsening health and premature deaths, job losses, and rising food prices.
At the previous conference, in Baku, the ‘magic number’ of $1.3 trillion per year until 2035 for adequate climate financing was announced. On that occasion, only $300 billion (23% of what is required) was put on the table. The Belém Final Declaration reaffirms the required amount of $1.3 trillion and emphasises that at least $300 billion should go to the Global South. But no new money appeared. Meanwhile, military spending has hit historic records—$2.7 trillion in 2024—putting pressure on public coffers and competing with other areas, such as addressing the environmental emergency.
The Paris Agreement set the challenge to keep the global average temperature increase well below 2.0°C, a target reaffirmed at COP30 and strictly dependent on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. By the end of the summit, 122 countries had submitted their new targets, the so-called NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions). The maths must therefore be redone, but it is now extremely unlikely that, even if these countries meet their stated objectives, the ceiling can still be achieved.
The largest global source of GHG emissions is the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas), and there is huge resistance to reducing this from countries whose economies are heavily dependent on oil, from private and state-owned oil companies, and from other related sectors such as the automotive industry.
Belém Mechanism for Action
The international trade union movement called for the creation of the Belém Mechanism for Action (BAM) to implement a Just Transition. Trade unions recognise that the issue has been gaining ground on governmental and corporate agendas; even so, the prevailing approach is far from ensuring decent work as a driver of decarbonisation. On this point, COP30 moved forward by creating the mechanism and recognising that workers, communities, and Indigenous peoples—in their intersections of gender and race—cannot be made to foot the bill. The decision is the result of social struggle and should be celebrated, even amid the contradictions of inadequate funding and the absence of a global decarbonisation pathway.
The People’s Summit
Civil society had a prominent presence at the People’s Summit, where more than 7,000 people gathered between 12 and 16 November. The aim was to unify struggles, organise demonstrations and, of course, pressure countries to prioritise people over business interests. The People’s Summit march brought together more than 30,000 participants. It featured a funeral for fossil fuels, statues criticising Donald Trump, masks honouring Chico Mendes (a Brazilian trade union leader and environmentalist assassinated in 1988), and a rich cultural programme led by Arrastão da Pavulagem, a local cultural group known for its music, dance, and costumes.
The standout feature of the march was the massive presence of Brazilian Indigenous peoples, who made themselves heard there and throughout the Conference. The occupation of the Blue Zone, where negotiations took place on 13 November, caught the attention of the global press because it was a security violation in a UN-controlled area. In fact, Brazilian Indigenous peoples led daily demonstrations in various spaces throughout the conference and remained mobilised even after the People’s Summit concluded. Their main demands are the right to their ancestral lands, in addition to criticism of the carbon market and large projects that violate their territories.
COP30 laid bare the gap between the severity of the climate crisis and the political will of countries to confront it concretely. Although there were advances in the creation of the BAM, the absence of new funding, the resistance to abandoning fossil fuels, and the persistence of economic interests over collective well-being prevailed. Even so, the mobilisation of Indigenous peoples, social movements, and workers showed that civil society remains the main driving force pushing for real change.
Renata Belzunces is an economist working at DIEESE, a union research and policy institute, doing research in Work and Environmental Studies.
