During COP30 in Belém do Pará, Brazil, more than 50,000 people took part in the People’s March for Climate, including a group of Pacific Island activists in Brazil for the UN climate talks.
The action brought together Indigenous peoples from across Latin America, activists from around the world and over 100 organisations, and has already been recognised as one of the defining moments of the conference.
The march featured indigenous communities from across the Amazon and the world, various civil society organisations, and movement art pieces such as giant coffins representing coal, oil and gas, large suns and wind turbines, over 80 jaguar performers, a 30-metre serpent and more than 100 artists — symbolised the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era.
This epic intervention helped shape the narrative of the final phase of COP30 negotiations, reinforcing the global call to end oil exploration in the Amazon and to phase out fossil fuels worldwide. The message was unmistakable: the Global South is leading.
Fenton Lutunatabua, 350.org Pacific Team Lead says, “Today the strength of the people was on display. While leaders negotiate our lives at COP30, we take to the streets to remind them that we are watching and we demand action, not empty promises. As Pacific Islanders, it was important for us to show up today because our struggle is the same as the people of the Amazon. The fossil fuel industry ravages their homes to dig for oil and gas, and that in turn fuels the climate crisis that devastates ours. We will always show up for fellow frontline communities in the fight to end fossil fuels.”
Suluafi Brianna Fruean, 350.org Pacific Council Elder says,”We were here at the Peoples March for Climate showing that true ambition, action and justice is found here in the people’s movement.”
Grace Malie, Tuvaluan climate activist says, “I joined the Climate March in Belém because every step I take is for my home, Tuvalu. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Indigenous peoples, youth, true allies from across the world fills me with grief and courage. Grief for what is at stake for us and for what we are losing and courage because none of us are fighting it alone. I joined the march as a pledge of my solidarity for every community fighting until justice is not a plea we keep repeating, but a promise the world finally keeps.”
