COP30 secured a win for civil society – what can future hosts learn from Brazil’s approach to people’s participation?

After years of sustained work for greater justice and inclusivity in climate conversations, civil society groups celebrated a win at the COP30 conference in Belém, Brazil last week when more than 190 countries agreed to set up a just transition mechanism.

The mechanism is aimed at ensuring that the rights and voices of those who are most vulnerable to climate impacts and the transition to net zero economies are recognised throughout the United Nations’ climate change process. This includes formal and informal workers, Indigenous Peoples, youth and children, women and the elderly, as well as persons with disabilities, among others. [see box]

“The just transition mechanism comes with the most progressive rights-based framing we have ever seen in a COP decision,” Anabella Rosemberg, just transition lead at Climate Action Network (CAN) International, a coalition of more than 1,900 civil society groups advocating for climate justice.

“For the first time, labour rights, human rights, the right to a clean environment, Free, Prior and Informed Consent, and the inclusion of marginalised groups are all recognised as core to achieving more ambitious climate action,” she said. 

Although the term ‘just transition’ was first introduced in official COP documents at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, its two-year work programme was set up only a year later in Dubai, resulting in it being called the United Arab Emirates Just Transition Work Programme.

That programme was due to expire this year, until the G77 and China, one of the largest coalitions of coordinated countries in UN negotiations comprising over 130 members, raised an early call at COP30 to establish the just transition mechanism. The coalition was awarded the “Ray of the Day” by CAN International on the first day of the climate conference, a rare show of positivity in a daily ceremony that typically called out fossil fuel-driven polluters.

“According to seasoned observers, what once seemed unattainable was achieved through the united front of the G77 and China, reinforced by the decisive leadership of the Brazilian Presidency,” wrote Hilary Kung, senior researcher at Third World Network (TWN), a non-profit focused on developing country concerns.

TWN head of programmes Meena Raman previously told the Eco-Business Podcast that the subject of a just transition would be among the most closely watched by developing countries, extending beyond the energy transition to cover all aspects of sustainable development, poverty eradication and climate adaptation. 

Outside official negotiations, civil society groups referred to the just transition mechanism as the Belém Action Mechanism (BAM), chanting the acronym and painting it on flags and banners. It was central to demonstrations held nearly every day during COP30 by CAN International and other climate justice advocacy groups, both within and outside the conference’s venue. 

In the COP30 the Blue Zone, the site of official negotiations, they were allocated a strategic space between meeting rooms and country pavilions, often attracting large, curious crowds of on-lookers.

The city of Belém also hosted over 70,000 people at the Global March for Climate Justice on Saturday, 15 November, where attendees included Indigenous Peoples, farmers, fishermen, trade unionists, peoples of African descent and the LQBTQIAPN+ community.

Brazil’s environment minister Marina Silva and Indigenous Peoples’ minister Sônia Guajajara were also present. Silva delivered a speech on behalf of the country’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who said that civil society participation had been “fundamental to the feasibility of COP30”.

“COP30 would not be viable without your participation – this extraordinary concentration of people who believe that another world is possible and necessary,” the speech said.

But Silva added, “What has been done is still not enough, because the climate has already changed. What we are experiencing today is no longer urgent – it is a climate emergency.” 

Civil society groups were allocated space within the official COP30 venue to stage daily actions for climate justice. Image: Samantha Ho/Eco-Business

Purely symbolic…or an opportunity to shape climate mitigation?

COP30 reportedly hosted the largest-ever gathering of Indigenous delegates at a UN climate conference, with more than 2,500 estimated to have attended. Throughout the conference’s two weeks, Indigenous Peoples were out in force at the Green Zone, a venue open to the public that was adjacent to the official Blue Zone. The zone hosted talks in local languages as well as stalls selling local crafts and cooperative-produced agricultural products.

However, there were gaps in ensuring Indigenous Peoples were fairly represented in the most critical conversations on global climate agreements. Only 360 Indigenous Brazilians were given passes to access official negotiations in COP30’s Blue Zone, compared to 1,600 representatives from fossil fuel companies.

Many Indigenous Brazilians say that their presence at COP30 felt more symbolic than meaningful, as their voices and concerns did not significantly influence critical discussions on climate actions.

In a report by the Associated Press, Thalia Yarina Cachimuel, a Kichwa-Otavalo member of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation, said: “This was a COP where we were visible but not empowered.”

This jarring mismatch came to a head in the first week of COP30, when Indigenous Peoples stormed the entrance to the venue one evening and clashed with security forces, which subsequently locked down entry to the venue. On another morning, the Indigenous Munduruku tribe, who live primarily in Brazil’s Amazonian states, staged a protest against exploitative mining in their rainforests at the entrance to the COP30 venue, prompting security personnel to once again close the main entrance to the COP30 Blue Zone.

The COP30 presidency responded with open arms. COP30 chief executive Ana Toni said that the actions of the Indigenous peoples were legitimate and their concerns would be heard. She and COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago spoke to Munduruku leaders outside the COP30 gates, opting to skip an event on oil and gas decarbonisation that do Lago was scheduled to appear at. The president was later photographed carrying one of the Indigenous People’s children and walking hand-in-hand with the protestors.

Indigenous Peoples from the Munduruku tribe, which calls the Brazilian Amazon forest home, spoke to COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago outside the main entrance to the climate conference. Image: Samantha Ho/Eco-Business

Speaking to Eco-Business shortly after the protest, United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) assistant secretary general Marcos Neto said that the inclusion of Indigenous and local voices is a healthy element of climate COPs, especially when they outnumber fossil fuel lobbyists. 

“I’m extremely happy to see the space that the Brazilian presidency and the Brazilian government are giving to civil society,” said Neto, who is also a native of Belém. “Indigenous Peoples in this part of Brazil have always been very strong and very powerful in fighting for their rights.”

He added, “I think what this COP can teach people is that engagement with civil society actually benefits diplomatic, international negotiations – it is not something that goes against [climate negotiations].”

In fact, public participation is critical to the implementation of any agreed outcomes, particularly when it comes to the success of countries’ individual five-year plans to reduce emissions and improve adaptation, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

“The NDCs have become very large, whole-of-economy plans and governments need to consult civil society, businesses and other stakeholders to create and implement them,” said Neto.

As an organisation that has supported more than 100 governments in developing their NDCs, UNDP has seen first hand that “the more inclusive and participatory [the process of creating] the NDC is, the more ambitious it is,” Neto shared.

“There’s a correlation between the degree of social inclusivity of an NDC and the level of ambition in an NDC,” he said. 

The United Nations’ latest NDC synthesis report, published in September, showed that countries are increasingly integrating gender, Indigenous Peoples and local communities in their climate targets to promote inclusive and effective climate action. 

“The new NDCs reflect a deepening and more structured engagement of [non-government] stakeholders in climate action,” United Nations Climate Change said. “An increasing number of parties are involving subnational entities, the private sector and civil society in both the design and implementation of NDCs.”

Brazilian women from the Babassu Coconut Breakers Movement (MIQCB) at the COP30 People’s Summit hold a sign saying “Climate finance is not charity. Historical reprarations, social justice”. Image: Samantha Ho/Eco-Business

Civil society must ask for more, please

It remains to be seen how the COP31 venue host Türkiye plans to ensure non-profit organisations and climate justice groups have their voices heard at next year’s climate conference.

However,  Australia, which lost the bid to host the full conference but will be hosting a pre-COP meeting for leaders and assuming the presidency of COP31’s negotiations, has promised to centre the voices and concerns of Pacific Islands countries.

Many of these nations are already suffering some of the worst impacts of rising sea levels due to climate change, and more than a third of people living in Tuvalu have applied to permanently resettle in Australia under a new visa scheme.

In a statement following the announcement of the COP31 hosting arrangements, the Australian government said that it would work with the Pacific Island nations to set the agenda for the pre-COP meeting and ensure that the climate finance needs of Small Island Developing States are platformed at the main summit in Türkiye’s city of Antalya.

Until then, COP30 president do Lago has welcomed greater public participation in the UN climate change process. In his final remarks, after a closing plenary that lasted more than seven hours, do Lago turned to the civil society representatives in the room.

“Thank you for driving us in the right direction. You need to ask for more,” he told them. “The world expects you to ask for more, and me too – be always on my back, and remind me [when] I’m not doing what I should over the next 11 months, please.”

That assurance was received in the plenary hall with claps and cheers by civil society representatives, who say that countries must now deliver on the just transition mechanism.

“Now that the mechanism exists, governments must fill it with ambition, finance, and cooperation,” said CAN International’s Rosemberg. “A just transition is not a side-chapter of climate policy – it is the lens through which the entire implementation of the Paris Agreement must now be guided.”

All eyes are now on future COP presidencies – Turkey, Australia and Ethiopia for COP32 – to take this hard-won inclusion further.

This story was produced as part of the 2025 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.