Belém (PA), November 16, 2025 — After five days of intense mobilization, the People’s Summit concluded its activities with a strong press conference, held immediately after the delivery of the final Political Letter to the President of COP30, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago. The event brought together members of the Summit’s Political Commission, including Darcy Frigo of the Brazilian Committee of Human Rights Defenders, Rachitaa Gulp of the Demand Climate Justice Campaign (DCJ), and Thuane Nascimento of Perifa Connection, who consolidated the position that the climate struggle is inseparably an anti-capitalist and anti-racist struggle.
The People’s Summit denounced that the “climate emergency is rooted in colonialism, extractivism, racism, and patriarchy,” condemning an economic system designed to sacrifice our lives for someone else’s profit.
End to green neocolonialism and criticism of polluters
The global articulation expressed rejection of “false market solutions” and what they described as “Green Neocolonialism,” warning that overcoming the climate crisis is impossible without confronting the central issue of the “structure of access to and use of land and territory.”
Movements directly pressured wealthy countries, publicly criticizing the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and European nations for continuing to pollute and jeopardize the global future.
Urgent demands for COP30
The Summit brought the truth directly into the preparation of this negotiation process, stating that COP30 is at a critical moment to approve the implementation of loss and damage funds, conclude negotiations on ending fossil fuels, and create an effective just transition mechanism that ensures climate action does not result in a “hollow document that protects the interests of the powerful.”
In contrast to market-based solutions, the Summit highlighted the multiplicity of proposals and real solutions already being implemented by peoples in their communities and that can be scaled up to global levels.
Defenders’ security: struggle and persecution
The issue of violence against activists and traditional peoples took on emotional prominence during the press conference. Eduardo Lima, a journalist and human rights defender, the son of peasants with a history of family losses in the struggle for land, questioned the government about security policies. He cited the harsh reality in regions such as the Kayapó Territory and Maranhão, where defenders and Indigenous people are murdered.
Darcy Frigo, of the Brazilian Committee of Human Rights Defenders, reinforced the demand for protection for movements that are “penalized and persecuted,” insisting that the fight against the climate crisis must include the essential security of those who protect the Amazon.
The final message of the People’s Summit was clear: just climate action is inseparable from the struggle for equity, human rights, and territorial sovereignty, and real change will not come from negotiations alone, but from unified popular power.