Thousands march in front of COP30 to call for action

Marching to the beat of sound systems, thousands of climate protesters brought their message to the gates of the COP30 climate negotiations in Brazil.

Chanting “Free the Amazon,” protesters in the host city of Belém carried three giant coffins reading “Oil, Coal and Gas,” flanked by two grim reapers.

Indigenous groups displayed signs reading “the answer is us”, while an inflatable elephant and an anaconda weaved through the crowds in the hot sun.

This is the first time since 2021 that protesters have been allowed to demonstrate outside of the UN climate negotiations. The last three took place in countries that do not allow public protests.

“We are having a funeral for fossil fuels,” Tuga Cíntia told the BBC. She is part of the Hydra Dance theater troupe at the Federal University of Pará.

“I’m here because enough with the COP meetings and the theory. It’s time for us to actually act,” she said.

Indigenous communities, Brazilian youth groups and activists from around the world joined the march by the thousands.

As the midday sun intensified, some sought shelter in a gas station forecourt.

“Fossil fuels are still being burned. We know all too well what it means to live on the front lines of climate change,” Brianna Fruean, a climate activist from Samoa, a low-lying island extremely vulnerable to climate change, told the BBC.

“We are here after so many COPS, marching for justice, for the end of fossil fuels,” said Ilan, of the non-governmental organization 350, who lives in Brazil.

Some carried signs reading “demarcation now,” calling for indigenous groups to gain legal ownership of their territories.

Hundreds of indigenous groups live in the Amazon and are considered by experts to be the best protectors of biodiversity and forests.

Smaller protests took place around the world, including in the United Kingdom.

Security was tight at the COP30 site, as police equipped with riot shields guarded the entrance.

On Tuesday, protesters holding signs broke through security lines at the summit. The incident caused minor injuries to two security personnel and some limited damage to the venue.

The representation of indigenous voices has been a flash point in these talks, with some setting up stalls outside the fenced COP30 venue to sell products to passing delegates.

The meeting has been dubbed “the indigenous peoples’ COP”, but many groups say their concerns about deforestation, land protection and resource extraction in their homes are not being heard.

Negotiations continued during the COP30 negotiations on Saturday. Nearly 200 countries are coming together to try to make progress in the fight against climate change.

Little progress has been made in the first week of negotiations, although some delegations say they are pushing for an agreed strategy to fulfill past pledges to abandon the use of fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.

Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva is hosting the negotiations and has chosen the city of Belém to focus the world’s attention on the Amazon.

But shortly before negotiations opened last week, his government authorized Brazil’s state oil company to explore for oil at the mouth of the Amazon.

On Friday, analysis of attendee lists by the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition suggested that a record number of delegates from fossil fuel companies were attending the meeting.

This suggests that 1,600 lobbyists are in Belém, an increase of 12% from last year’s COP.

It is common for business leaders to come to negotiations to make deals.

With the United States conspicuously absent from the negotiations, progress has been slow. This is the first time the country has not sent any delegation to the negotiations, after President Donald Trump called climate change “bullshit.”

Earlier in the week, a group of top climate officials wrote a letter calling on the summit to ensure the facts about climate change are “confirmed.”

Ten countries signed an initiative called the Declaration on Climate Change Information Integrity at COP30, launched by the Global Initiative for Climate Change Information Integrity.

It aims to create international commitments to combat climate misinformation and promote evidence-based information on climate issues.

On fundamental issues of how to tackle the root causes of climate change and help countries adapt to today’s warming climate, Brazil pledged that negotiations would result in measures to implement years of agreements and commitments.

Talks will continue next week.