Climate protesters march at COP30 in costumes and drums demanding to be heard

Some wore black dresses to mark the funeral of fossil fuels. Hundreds of people wore red t-shirts, symbolizing the blood of colleagues who fought to protect the environment. And others chanted, waved huge flags or held signs Saturday in what is traditionally the biggest day of protest midway through the annual United Nations climate talks.

Organizers with powerful sound systems on trucks with raised platforms directed protesters from a wide range of environmental and social movements. Marisol García, a Kichwa woman from Peru marching at the front of a group, said protesters are there to pressure world leaders to make “more humanized decisions.”

Protesters demand to be heard during climate march

The protesters walked about 4 kilometers on a route that took them near the main venue of the talks, known as COP30. Earlier this week, protesters twice disrupted talks surrounding the site, including an incident on Tuesday in which two security guards suffered minor injuries.

A full day of sessions were planned at the site, including talks on how to move forward with $300 billion a year in annual climate finance aid that rich countries agreed last year to give poor nations to help them unplug. fossil fuelsadapt to a nastier, warmer world and compensate for extreme climate damage. Global temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions and sea levels reached record levels in 2024, the State of the Global Climate report confirmed.

Many of the protesters reveled in the freedom to demonstrate more openly than in recent times. climate talks held in more authoritarian countries, including Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Thousands of people joined a procession that stretched along most of the march route.

Youth leader Ana Heloisa Alves, 27, said it was the largest climate march she had ever participated in. “This is incredible,” he said. “You can’t ignore all these people.”

Alves was on the march to fight for the Tapajós River, which the Brazilian government wants to develop commercially. “The river is for the people,” said his group’s signs.

Pablo Neri, coordinator in the Brazilian state of Pará of the Movimento dos Trabajadores Rurais Sem Terra, a rural workers’ organization, said organizers of the talks should involve more people to reflect a climate movement that is moving toward popular participation.

US skips talks after Trump calls climate change a scam

The United States, where President Trump has derided climate change as a scam, is skipping the talks. This is the second time the Trump administration retired of the Paris Agreement ten years ago, which is celebrated here in Belem as a partial achievement.

President Trump’s actions harm the fight against climate change, said former US special climate envoy Todd Stern.

“It’s good that they don’t send anyone. It wouldn’t be constructive if they did,” he said.

Two US governors, Gavin Newsom of California and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, were in Brazil to attend the summit, representing US efforts at the state level to curb emissions. Newsom, a Democrat, criticized the Trump administration’s decision not to attend and said earlier in the week that Brazil is a country the United States “should engage with, not slap with 50% tariffs“.

One protester, Flavio Pinto, from the state of Pará, took aim at the United States. Wearing a brown suit and an oversized American flag top hat, he shifted his weight back and forth on stilts and fanned himself with fake hundred-dollar bills with Trump’s face on them. “Imperialism produces wars and environmental crises,” their poster said.

Vitoria Balbina, regional coordinator of the Babaçu Interstate Coconut Breakers Movement, marched with a group of women, mostly wearing domed hats made from Babaçu palm leaves. They called for more access to trees on private property that provide not only their livelihoods but also deep cultural meaning. He said marching is not just about struggle and resistance on the climate and environmental front, but also about “a way of life.”

Protesters formed a sea of ​​red, white and green flags as they marched uphill. A crowd of curious onlookers gathered outside a corner supermarket to watch them approach, leaning over a railing and taking pictures with their cellphones. “Beautiful,” said a man passing by with grocery bags.

The climate talks are scheduled to last until Friday. Analysts and some participants have said they do not expect any major new agreements to emerge from the talks, but do expect progress on some past promises, including money to help poor countries adapt to climate change.