COP30 Week One Wrap Up
The path to 1.5ºC depends on what’s decided at COP30 in Belém and whether the world will stand with people or polluters. Week One just wrapped up and we want to bring you into the room, behind the scenes, and onto the streets where people demand climate justice!
Negotiations: The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher
A fossil fuel phaseout roadmap is gaining traction, pushed by leadership from Colombia, Brazil’s Marina Silva, and frontline voices. This would be for nothing if the EU and others continue to block progress on finance and a proposed Just Transition mechanism backed by the G77 and China.
Laurie van der Burg, our Global Public Finance Campaign Co-Manager, puts it this way: “Without public money, there is no fast, fair and funded fossil fuel phaseout.”
Article 9.1, the backbone of climate finance, is now a political fault line. To secure a fossil fuel phaseout, deliver real adaptation, and ensure a just transition, we need robust, accountable public finance. It’s time for developed countries to step up with support that meets the scale of the crisis.
Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Are Everywhere
The numbers are out, and they’re outrageous: over 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists are attending COP30. That’s 1 in every 25 people in Belém. The arsonists of the climate crisis are inside the firehouse…again.
David Tong, our Global Industry Manager, said: “There is no justification for allowing 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists into UN climate negotiations. You wouldn’t invite tobacco lobbyists to a conference on lung cancer, so after 30 years, why are there still more fossil fuel lobbyists at COP30 than representatives of the countries that are most vulnerable to the climate crisis?”
From Palestine to the Amazon, Solidarity Is Everywhere
On Friday, Indigenous women led a powerful blockade at the COP30 entrance, preventing access for several hours to demand real action to protect their territories. There can be no climate justice without Indigenous rights and leadership. We stand in full solidarity with their call. Negotiations cannot be legitimate or effective unless those most impacted, Indigenous Peoples, workers, and frontline communities are allowed into the negotiating spaces to lead.
Indigenous women led a powerful blockade at the COP30 entrance. Photos by @samidellah.
From the banks of the Tapajós to the streets of Belém, the call is clear: the Amazon must be free of oil and gas. Indigenous leaders led powerful actions demanding a transition rooted in justice, not extraction, joined by some of the 5,000 forest defenders, Indigenous leaders, and fisher folk in the Boat Parade that kicked off the People’s Summit. Their message? “The people are the answer.”
Forest defenders, Indigenous leaders, and fisher folk in the Boat Parade that kicked off the People’s Summit. Photos by Rafael Vilela.
That same demand for justice echoed across the city as oil worker trade unionists and movement leaders from Brazil, South Africa, Palestine, and beyond came together to expose how the global fossil fuel system is enabling genocide in Gaza.
COP30 Press Conference: Launch of “Behind the Barrel” – Exposing Fossil Fuel Shipments to Israel
Together with the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy, the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy NOW, and National Federation of Oil Workers Brasil (FNP) we held a press conference to expose how the global energy system is directly fueling war, occupation, and genocide.
We also released “Behind the Barrel: An Update on the Origins of Israel’s Fuel Supply”, tracing over 21 million tonnes of fossil fuels delivered to Israel from countries including the U.S., Russia, and Azerbaijan — fuel used to carry out a brutal military assault that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, including over 20,000 children.
“The same fossil fuel system that drives the climate crisis also drives war, occupation, and genocide,” said Bronwen Tucker of Oil Change International. “At COP30, where governments are negotiating fossil fuel phaseout, we must confront this truth. Energy justice is inseparable from liberation.”
Shady Khalil, Oil Change International, Ana Sanchez Mera, Coordinator for the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine, Leandro Lanfredi, Rio Director of the National Federation of Oil Workers Brasil (FNP), and Mohammed Usrof, Executive Director of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy (PICS) at a COP30 Press Conference: New Data Exposes Countries Fueling Genocide in Gaza
Shady Khalil, Oil Change International, Ana Sanchez Mera, Coordinator for the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine, Leandro Lanfredi, Rio Director of the National Federation of Oil Workers Brasil (FNP), and Mohammed Usrof, Executive Director of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy (PICS) at a COP30 Press Conference: New Data Exposes Countries Fueling Genocide in Gaza
Don’t Miss Essential Stories and Voices
🎧 Listen: Burned: The Price of Oil — Our new limited podcast series, hosted by Shady Khalil, pulls back the curtain on the true cost of fossil fuels and the villains blocking climate action. Episode one features Tasneem Essop on climate justice, apartheid, and holding the Global North accountable.
🎬 Watch: Shell Shocked — A film honoring the legacy of the Ogoni 9, and the continued struggle in the Niger Delta. We’re also hosting a webinar on Tuesday, November 18th where you can learn more about the Ogoni 9 and the film.
📄 Read: Behind the Barrel — Our explosive new report tracing the global fuel shipments that are enabling Israel’s assault on Gaza.
OCI Team at Work
As Thuli Makama, our Africa Director, said:
For decades, fossil fuels have failed to deliver on promises… At COP30, leaders must reject this false path and champion a fast, fair, and fully funded transition to renewable energy that truly serves our people and our future.
Romain Ioualalen spotlighted the countries fueling the crisis post-Paris (read more in Drilled’s COP30 coverage on Planet Wreckers):
The spotlight must be on the countries fueling this crisis — the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Norway.
Allie Rosenbluth took aim at U.S. climate hypocrisy:
Newsom says the right things — now he needs to stop expanding oil drilling in California.
David Tong broke down the latest IEA report, reminding us that the clean energy transition is already underway (read more in The Guardian’s coverage of the IEA findings):
The question isn’t if it will happen — it’s whether it will be fast and fair enough.