During a press conference inside the Blue Zone at COP30, Indian activist Rachitaa Ramesh, a member of the international Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) campaign and of the Political Committee of the Peoples’ Summit, underscored the urgency driving climate negotiations at this decisive moment on the road to COP30 in Belém. According to her, resources for adaptation, loss and damage, and the transition away from fossil fuels must be public, grant-based, and never tied to mechanisms that push vulnerable countries and communities into new debt for a crisis they did not create.
“Our communities must not be pushed into even greater debt for disasters they did not cause,” she argued, warning that the current global political landscape is marked by setbacks and a growing effort by major economic powers to shift risks and responsibilities onto poorer countries.
Rachitaa noted that while wealthy nations’ public discourse suggests climate commitment, their governments continue to prioritize corporate interests, strengthening financial mechanisms that provide little or no real support to frontline communities living through climate impacts. The consequences are devastating: adaptation programs remain underfunded, preventive measures fail, and the most affected communities remain permanently exposed, forced to rebuild their lives repeatedly after extreme climate events.
The activist also highlighted the differentiated impacts of the climate crisis on women, Indigenous peoples, workers, and racialized communities. Ignoring these inequalities, she said, produces inefficient and unjust policies. “When we talk about transition, we need to talk about lives. And some lives continue to be treated as disposable,” she stated.
Rachitaa emphasizes that the energy transition cannot replicate historical inequalities and must place communities at the center of decision-making — not only as beneficiaries but as leaders and protagonists.
Another critical point she raised is the insistence of Global North countries on promoting “solutions” that deepen the problem. She cited, for example, proposals based on carbon offsets, uncertain credit mechanisms, and financial models presented as innovative but that shift risks onto countries in the Global South.
To her, these initiatives divert attention from real measures such as cutting emissions at the source, ending the fossil fuel era, and fairly financing the global transition. “We see the rich world making promises with one hand and taking them back with the other,” she said.
Based on this diagnosis, Rachitaa reinforced that adequate climate finance will only be possible if historical major emitters assume their responsibility. Among those she mentioned are the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union, Australia, and Japan.
“The transition must be fast, must start with those who caused the crisis, and must be financed by them,” she stressed. According to her, this includes three fundamental pillars: adaptation, still dangerously underfunded; loss and damage, essential for communities to rebuild homes, lives, and economies; and sufficient resources for a just transition capable of moving the world away from fossil fuels without sacrificing social and environmental rights.
Summit demonstrates the strength of global mobilization
Amid this global scenario, the Peoples’ Summit held in Belém gains strong relevance, according to Rachitaa, for demonstrating that true political strength comes from grassroots movements, territories, and organized communities. The mobilization brought together around 24,000 people in a week-long program and a global march for climate justice that put 70,000 people in the streets.
The gathering, she said, showed that there is a clear project for climate justice built collectively, rooted in the experiences of those who have faced the deepest socio-environmental impacts for decades. This mobilization, she argues, is what pressures governments, exposes contradictions in international negotiations, and prevents false solutions from advancing unchecked. “The Peoples’ Summit showed that we are not alone and that there is power when we move together,” she concluded.