Organized for more than two years and collectively built by around 1,100 social movements, community organizations, territorial entities, and international human rights and climate justice networks from 62 countries, the People’s Summit at COP30 presents itself as an autonomous and popular response to the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).
The event will take place from November 12 to 16 in Belém, Pará, and is rooted in the understanding that the climate crisis cannot be treated solely as a technical or diplomatic issue, but rather as a profoundly social one, experienced within communities and directly linked to historical inequalities affecting Indigenous peoples, traditional communities, peripheral youth, and rural and urban workers.
Unlike the official Conference, structured around negotiation spaces dominated by governments and corporations, the People’s Summit establishes itself as an autonomous political territory, aimed at collectively building solutions based on the concrete experiences of those who face floods, droughts, industrial contamination, the advance of agribusiness, territorial expulsions, and environmental violations on a daily basis. For this reason, the Summit is presented not as a parallel event, but as the true popular stage of climate justice.
The mobilization emerges at a moment of intense international scrutiny regarding Brazil’s role as host of COP30. Following a COP29 widely regarded by social movements as disappointing, especially due to the absence of binding climate finance targets and the broad reliance on loans that may increase economic dependence in vulnerable countries, expectations are growing that Brazil can assume leadership consistent with its socio-environmental importance.
Social movements argue that Brazil can only lead the international agenda if it recognizes and directly dialogues with the peoples who protect the Amazon and other biomes. Since 2023, more than 500 organizations have signed the People’s Summit political letter, which has been delivered to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and operational bodies linked to COP30. The document highlights that “decision-making countries have failed to act or have presented absolutely ineffective solutions,” while “investments that fuel climate change have increased,” and territorial rights remain under threat.
The People’s Summit draws inspiration from the mobilization held during Rio+20 in 2012, when more than 20,000 people built a popular space for political formulation that challenged the official UN agenda and established a historic reference of global resistance. This time, however, the scale is even larger, with expectations of gathering 30,000 people in a meeting guided by six central axes that structure the political and territorial convergences of the event.
What Does the People’s Summit at COP30 Address?
The axes range from the defense of food sovereignty and territories to a just energy transition, confronting corporate power, democratizing access to common goods, and fighting environmental racism. They also include a commitment to promoting climate solutions rooted in traditional ways of life, reaffirming that the answers to the crisis lie in the territories, not in financial markets or corporate laboratories.
Sara Pereira, from FASE Amazon Program, summarizes this centrality: “It is not possible to think about COP30 without grounding the climate agenda in climate justice. There will be no just transition without guaranteed rights for traditional peoples.” For her, territories already produce the concrete solutions the world seeks: “These territories manage forests and waters in a balanced way.”
Ayala Ferreira, from the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), stresses the need to denounce false solutions while pointing to concrete paths emerging from peoples and territories. “We have emphasized that solutions come from the territories, from those who engage daily with land, forests, and waters through their ways of life. That is why, beyond holding credentials to access official COP30 spaces, we have built the People’s Summit as a plural space of listening and proposals, pointing to real, necessary, and urgent solutions to the climate crisis, such as popular agrarian reform and large-scale initiatives for reforestation, spring restoration, and healthy food production.”
Marcio Astrini, from Climate Observatory, reinforces the Summit’s historic role in disputing the global narrative: “The participation of social movements is crucial to shaping the climate agenda and ensuring that resources are invested correctly, reducing social inequalities rather than increasing them.”
Yuri Paulino, from the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), explains that the People’s Summit is focused on direct civil society participation, and therefore its program was designed to strengthen the protagonism of those who face the impacts of the climate crisis daily, rather than those who negotiate solutions solely at the institutional level.
Children and Adolescents Mobilize During COP30
For the first time since the first People’s Summit in 1992, children and adolescents from civil society organizations will be gathered on the Guamá campus of the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). They will have a space of protagonism within the program to express their views on the issues debated at COP30, through circles, dialogues, music, dance, and other activities using methodologies adapted from early childhood through adolescence.
Salomão Hage, professor at UFPA and general coordinator of the Children’s Summit, explains that the decision to create a specific movement with and for children arose from a consensus that it is impossible to discuss social justice, climate change, racism, and environmental justice without ensuring the voice and participation of those whose futures will be most affected by current decisions. “The children’s movement must be involved in the autonomous debate taking place during the People’s Summit. Children and adolescents must participate freely and without intermediaries.”
Program of the People’s Summit at COP30
Activities begin on Wednesday, November 12, with a popular opening that symbolically marks the start of the mobilizations. This first moment focuses on welcoming delegations, the arrival of movements, and the creation of a collective environment of coexistence, listening, and celebration. Cultural interventions, traditional rituals, and opening acts will present the Summit’s proposal and reaffirm its autonomy in relation to the official COP30 space.
The morning will be marked by a Boat Demonstration on the Guamá River, when boats from various riverside communities arrive in Belém and join national and international delegations, with the participation of approximately 150 vessels. From 3 pm to 5 pm, delegations will be welcomed on the main stage, followed by the official opening of the People’s Summit from 5 pm to 7 pm. The first day will conclude with a major cultural concert on the popular main stage.
On Thursday, November 13, thematic activities organized around the Summit’s convergence axes begin. Workshops, dialogue circles, plenaries, and exchanges of experiences will be guided by territorial knowledge, strengthening the connection between climate struggle and social justice. This phase aims to identify key challenges faced by communities and map existing solutions in the territories. From 8:30 am to 12 pm, global plenaries will address axes 1, 2, and 3: Sovereignty, Reparation, and Transition. The Children’s Summit and the Popular Fair will also take place. In the afternoon, from 2 pm to 6 pm, Convergence Axis Link activities occur, followed by cultural activities and informational sessions on negotiations and mobilizations from 7 pm to 10 pm.
Friday, November 14, will be dedicated to consolidating proposals emerging from previous activities. This is the moment of political synthesis, when content raised by movements is organized into contributions for the final declaration. From 8:30 am to 12 pm, activities resume with Axis 4 – Internationalism; Axis 5 – Cities; and Axis 6 – Women. Cultural interventions and the Children’s Summit will take place throughout the plenaries. In the afternoon, from 2 pm to 4 pm, Convergence Axis Link activities, the Social Movements Assembly, and the seminar “Health and Climate” will occur. From 4 pm to 6 pm, the final plenary will present the synthesis of the axes and consolidate the People’s Declaration.
On Saturday, November 15, the great popular march will take place, an international and public demonstration bringing together Indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, youth, urban and rural workers, feminist organizations, environmental collectives, trade unions, and international networks. The Unified March will occur from 8:30 am to 11 am, with expectations of gathering more than 20,000 people, followed by a press conference with spokespersons presenting key discussions from the People’s Summit.
Finally, on Sunday, November 16, the program concludes with the reading and presentation of the final declaration built throughout the Summit. From 9 am to 11 am, a public hearing with the COP presidency will present the People’s Summit political agenda, followed by the closing act. In the afternoon, at 2 pm, a Banquet Protest (Banquetaço) will take place at Praça da República.
More than a series of activities, the People’s Summit program reflects a different way of thinking about climate: bottom-up, with popular protagonism and territorial grounding. Each day is a living stage of collective construction, demonstrating that confronting the climate crisis necessarily involves strengthening the communities that already protect and regenerate biomes. The Summit calls on society to participate not as spectators, but as active subjects in building another future.