“The Solution Comes from the People!” say the Landless Workers’ Movement ahead of COP30

The Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) will meet with a delegation of 1,300 people, together with popular movements and social organizations from Brazil and around the world, at the People’s Summit, at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), in Belém, Pará, between November 12 and 16; an autonomous and independent event that takes place parallel to the program of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).

The main objective of the COP is to bring together leaders and heads of state to define necessary measures to limit the increase in the planet’s temperature to 1.5ºC by the end of this century; continuing the implementation of what was negotiated in previous COPs. Also called the Conference of the Parties, the event will officially take place between November 10th and 21st, and is expected to bring together 50,000 people in Belém, Pará.

The leaders of the participating countries will also meet in Belém at the COP30 Heads of State Summit, which takes place before the official program, between November 6th and 7th. The participation of 143 delegations from the 198 signatory countries of the international treaties dealing with the issue is confirmed, where together they will signal political commitments on the global management of the environmental and climate issue.

In parallel to the COP, the People’s Summit will take place, organized autonomously by popular movements and organizations, whose main objective is to pressure and convince the Brazilian government to lead the proposal of more ambitious goals for reducing global temperature, going beyond the solutions considered flawed and insufficient, proposed by the leaders and corporations participating in the Climate Summit and the Climate Conference. The People’s Summit expects to bring together approximately 15,000 people during the five-day event, including leaders from women’s collectives, indigenous peoples, peasants, quilombolas (descendants of runaway slaves), Black people, youth, LGBTQIAPN+ individuals, environmentalists, trade unionists, and human rights movements, with the objective of influencing the environmental agenda from the social base, where solutions are already being implemented.

Since 2023, the organizing collective of the Summit has been carrying out an advocacy agenda that has already resulted in the adherence of approximately 1,100 entities, including more than 100 international organizations. The meeting in Belém will have an intense program that will include plenary sessions, a global march through the streets of the capital of Pará simultaneous with other marches around the world, political caravans, a children’s space, a boat parade among the communities of the region, a large banquet, cultural presentations, and a People’s Fair.

Those responsible for the crisis are incapable of creating the solutions

Although popular entities and movements also participate in some of the debates included in the official COP30 program, there are divergences in perspective between the popular organizations aligned with the Social Summit regarding the direction being taken by leaders of decision-making countries at the Climate Conference. This is because state leaders allied with large corporations have either been negligent or presented absolutely ineffective solutions to steer us away from the path of climate tragedy that could result in the destruction of the planet.

In this sense, Ayala Ferreira, from the national leadership of the MST (Landless Workers’ Movement), points to the need to denounce the false solutions proposed by green capitalism, and to point out paths to concrete resolutions coming from the people and territories, considering that the leaders of COP30 are not in a position to offer real solutions for the environment and the population, in a context where the large corporations allied with the governments participating in these proposals are the perpetrators of the current crisis we are experiencing. “We have emphasized that the solution comes from the territories, from those who deal with the land, forests, and waters as part of their way of life. Therefore, in addition to having credentials to act in the official access areas of COP30, we built the People’s Summit as this additional space for listening and proposing solutions, pointing to true, necessary, and urgent solutions in the face of the climate crisis, such as People’s Agrarian Reform and broad initiatives for reforestation, recovery of water sources, and production of healthy food,” highlights the leader.

In this way, social movements hope that the pressure from organized society will promote a framework for popular participation and motivate the government to adopt bolder measures, considering that Brazil has a crucial role in leading more effective proposals to engage a more radical commitment from countries to nature and the environmental issue, since, in addition to being the host country of the event, it currently holds the presidency of COP30, and is the nation with one of the greatest biodiversities in the world.