From Rio to Belém: 33 Years After the Earth Summit, the World Returns to Brazil for COP30 at a Defining Moment for Climate Action
By Bryan Bixcul (Maya-Tz’utujil), SIRGE Coalition Global Coordinator
Thirty three years after the landmark United Nations Earth Summit convened in Rio de Janeiro, the moment when the modern global climate agenda was born, the world returns to Brazil, this time to the gateway of the Amazon. From November 10 to 21, 2025, The 30th Session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) will take place in Belém, within the Amazon rainforest, on the traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples who have safeguarded these essential lands, waters, and ecosystems for millennia.
The setting is historic. The Amazon is not only an ecosystem at risk but the home of countless Indigenous Peoples, including Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact, and of extraordinary biodiversity. It is also a source of climate solutions and a frontline of climate justice. As the world gathers in Belém, Indigenous leaders from the region and across the globe will stand together in the Amazon to demand decisive action from governments, because there has never been a better time to act, and no better place to do so.
From Rio to Belém
When the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1992, global carbon dioxide emissions were about 22 billion tonnes per year, according to data from the Global Carbon Project. More than three decades later, emissions have nearly doubled. In 2024, the Global Carbon Project estimates that emissions reached around 41.6 billion tonnes. Despite decades of international agreements and climate pledges, emissions keep rising. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently confirmed that the planet has already surpassed 1.5 °C of warming over a twelve-month period, a critical threshold scientists warned should never be crossed.
At the same time, governments continue to prioritize false solutions such as carbon markets, offsetting, debt-inducing climate finance and technological quick fixes that let major polluters keep emitting instead of transforming their practices. These approaches ignore the real causes of the climate crisis - unsustainable extraction, overconsumption, and economic systems built on exploitation of land and people. Rather than reducing emissions, they shift responsibility away from those most responsible for the problem, while delaying the urgent structural change needed to protect the planet, its biodiversity and its peoples.
Last year at COP 29 in Baku
At COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, governments adopted the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance to replace the previous US $100 billion annual target. The new goal establishes a minimum of US $300 billion per year by 2035, with a broader aspiration to mobilize US $1.3 trillion annually from all sources, including public and private finance. Negotiators also finalized long-pending rules under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which govern international carbon markets and cooperative approaches. These decisions followed tense discussions on transparency, accountability, and the balance between mitigation and adaptation finance.
Indigenous Peoples noted that the agreements left major gaps. The NCQG does not specify how the funds will be provided or what share will come as grants rather than loans, as well as the need for mechanisms for direct access to climate finance for Indigenous Peoples. The newly approved Article 6 rules remain controversial due to concerns about environmental integrity and their potential impacts on communities and ecosystems. Indigenous Peoples have expressed disappointment at the limited progress on loss and damage, urging stronger and more predictable commitments ahead of COP30.
Another major negotiation took place under the Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP), where governments discussed how to operationalize just transitions under the Paris Agreement. The session closed without clear language on integrating human rights or Indigenous Peoples’ rights, despite repeated calls to do so. Discussions on transition minerals, such as lithium, nickel, and copper, also gained attention as Indigenous Peoples underscored their role in renewable-energy technologies. Yet the talks did not address the environmental and social impacts of extraction of minerals in Indigenous territories or the urgent need to operationalize the right Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). These omissions reveal that the transition away from fossil fuels is already reproducing the same patterns of inequality and dispossession that Indigenous Peoples have long faced.
What’s on the Agenda for COP30
During the two weeks of negotiations in Belém, several interlinked meetings will take place, the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP30), the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA7), the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP), and the 63rd sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies for Implementation (SBI63) and for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA63). Together, these bodies cover the full breadth of the UNFCCC climate change policy system, from science and technical advice, to implementation, to the core treaty negotiations. They are distinct in function but united in purpose: to advance decisions on climate action, finance, adaptation, transparency, and technology in line with the Paris Agreement and other treaties.
At COP30, Parties are expected to focus on several priority areas that build on outcomes from Dubai (COP28) and Baku (COP29):
Global Stocktake (GST) follow-up: The first GST was completed in 2023. At COP30, Parties will focus on implementing the GST’s outcomes, including the “UAE Dialogue” process, and aligning their next round of nationally-determined contributions (NDCs) with those findings.
Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP): Parties will discuss how to translate the concept of “just transitions” into practice, including identifying best practices, social protection measures, and participation of workers, Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, and more sectors of society. An informal note prepared after SB62 and SBSTA62 will serve as the basis for negotiations.
Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) & indicators: Under the “UAE–Belém Work Programme”, Parties will work to develop indicators and metrics to measure progress on adaptation so that adaptation efforts become more trackable and better supported.
Finance: Building on the agreement at COP29 on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), discussions at COP30 will advance how to mobilize predictable and accessible finance for mitigation, adaptation, and loss & damage — in line with the “Baku to Belém Roadmap to US$ 1.3 trillion per year by 2035,” an initiative co-led by the COP29 and COP30 Presidencies to guide implementation of the new finance goal.
Loss & Damage: COP30 will review the operationalisation of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (established at COP28 and progressed at COP29) to ensure that funding reaches the countries already facing severe impacts.
Mitigation & NDC Enhancement: COP30 is a key moment for Parties to submit new or updated 2035 NDCs, showing whether ambition is increasing in line with GST findings.
Indigenous Priorities for COP30
Across all agenda items, the Indigenous Peoples movement has been calling for decisions that uphold their rights, self-determination, and knowledge systems. Their priorities are cross-cutting, spanning adaptation, finance, just transition, mitigation, loss and damage and reflect decades of advocacy to ensure that climate action does not reproduce historic injustices. Some priorities include:
Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC): Indigenous Peoples demand that all climate policies, programmes, and investments respect their right to FPIC. FPIC is the vehicle by which Indigenous Peoples exercise their rights, including the right to Self-determination, and protect essential ecosystems.
Protection of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact: Indigenous Peoples are calling for explicit safeguards to protect the rights, territories, and survival of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI). COP30 must ensure that climate and development initiatives, including renewable energy and mining projects, do not violate the principles of No Contact and Intangibility, and that no-go zones are established to prevent intrusion into their lands.
Protection of Indigenous Land and Environmental Defenders: Around the world, those who defend land, water, and life continue to face lethal violence. According to Global Witness, at least 146 land and environmental defenders were killed or disappeared in 2024, bringing the total to more than 2,250 deaths since 2012. Although Indigenous Peoples represent only 6% of the world’s population, they accounted for nearly one-third of all victims. Protecting defenders is therefore inseparable from protecting the planet. COP30 must deliver concrete commitments to guarantee their safety, uphold justice, and end impunity.
Territorial protection and demarcation: The legal recognition and protection of Indigenous territories remain central to climate justice. In the Amazon and beyond, Indigenous territories act as barriers against deforestation and biodiversity loss. Recognizing land rights is therefore one of the most effective and equitable climate solutions.
A Just Transition grounded in rights: Under the Just Transition Work Programme, Indigenous Peoples call for transitions that move away from extraction in all forms, fossil fuels and minerals alike, and toward models based on collective wellbeing, cultural continuity, regenerative systems, and respect for Mother Earth.
Direct access to climate finance: Indigenous Peoples are calling for financial mechanisms that allow direct access to funds through their own institutions, without overburdensome bureaucracy. They call for transparent, grant-based finance to strengthen Indigenous community-led climate actions and governance, recognizing Indigenous Peoples as partners, not beneficiaries, in implementation.
Indicators that reflect Indigenous rights and priorities: Under the Global Goal on Adaptation and the UAE–Belém Work Programme, Indigenous Peoples urge negotiators to adopt indicators that reflect their priorities. These include cultural integrity, territorial protection, intergenerational transmission of knowledge, and non-economic losses such as the erosion of language, identity, and spirituality.
No false solutions: Indigenous leaders warn that unregulated carbon markets, offsets, and extractive “transition” models risk repeating the same colonial patterns and distract us from addressing the root causes of the climate crisis. They call for an end to approaches that commodify nature and for a shift toward rights-based, place-based, and regenerative solutions.
Adaptation and resilience rooted in Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Indigenous communities continue to build resilience through their traditional knowledge, spirituality, stewardship of ecosystems and Indigenous technology. They call for adaptation efforts that support these systems, protect water, and sustain biodiversity, not replace them with externally imposed technologies.
Meaningful participation and leadership: Indigenous Peoples seek full and effective participation at all levels of decision-making. Inclusion must go beyond attendance, ensuring that Indigenous governance systems and worldviews inform the design and implementation of climate actions.
Call to Action
As we look toward COP30 in Belém, we remind Parties that justice doesn’t reside in rhetorical statements or speeches. It must be embedded in the details: the language of decisions, the design of institutions, the allocation of resources, in full and effective participation in decision-making, and the integrity of the process itself.
Indigenous Peoples are ready to engage in constructive negotiations and have laid out clear proposals and solutions to ensure that COP30 delivers justice. We have to get it right, not just for us humans, but for the 8.7 million species that share this planet with us.
Picture Credit: Cultural Survival
